Minerva: Wandering Mercenary
by wherearetherobots
Summary: Independent-minded engineer Minerva "Mina" Oxford has one goal and one goal only. She is willing to do anything to achieve that goal, even if it means trusting a robotic scientist who wants to turn back time... (Rated T for some language, violence, and mild usage of alcohol)
1. Prologue

**Author's**** note:** _This serves as a prologue to the main story, and its first chapter will be coming out soon. The first chapter is in its final phases of editing and will be published within the next two weeks. I hope you guys enjoy and I will be back with chapter one as soon as possible!_

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**Minerva: Wandering Mercenary**

**Prologue - Origins**

**Pre RaC 1-RaC 2:**

Minerva Oxford was born to teen parents, Mayella Cambridge and Atticus Oxford. Her parents moved from the Polaris Galaxy to Bogon about five years before Tachyon took over (or around five years before Ratchet was born). Mina's parents quickly got married after the birth of their daughter and six years later had their next daughter, Eleanor. Three years after Eleanor's birth they had a boy, whom they named Jamison. Being much older, Mina often times took on the role as a third parent. Growing up, Mina was inspired by various holo-films and shows to pick up on hobbies such as mechanics and robotics. Many of Mina's peers bullied her for her obsessions that some saw as strange. Yet her parents and teachers were largely impressed. She picked up on her hobbies so well that they saw her as a child prodigy. They were very right, as Mina ended up graduating high school a year early at the age of 16.

After graduating high school, Mina was employed at MegaCorp, becoming their youngest employee ever. Even though most of the other employees patronized her, she was a great worker. Two years into her employment, an accidental house fire occurred, leaving Mina with life-threatening injuries. Mina's injuries were so severe that the only way to save her life was to replace the majority of her body with machinery. Although the remains of her organic body rejected her mechanical parts to the point where she had to be turned into a robot 100%. When she finally saw her new form, Mina suffered a mental breakdown. She spent the next year barely speaking to anyone and refusing to go out in public.

Mina later learned of a tech company that invented electronic accessories that could create armor on whoever the wearer was. After speaking with the company, Mina was informed that the coding could be altered to produce materials that look and feel like organic tissue; such as hair and skin. Mina relentlessly begged her parents for it until they finally gave in. She had a watch attached to her left wrist that practically brought her back to her old self. She was overjoyed until she was informed how much money her parents owed the tech company. They owed so many bolts that it would've taken a minimum of 10 years to be able to pay it off.

Feeling guilty, Mina packed her bags and moved all the way to the Solana Galaxy, where she would hope to find new work to help her parents pay off the debt. She couldn't stand being anywhere near her family knowing what she did. Not long after turning 20, Mina found work at Big Al's Roboshack on Kerwan. She told Al about her true robotic form and the two immediately clicked and became friends. But one job wasn't enough for her. So Mina also got employment at a 24-hour restaurant as a server and worked graveyard shirts. Being a robot meant she didn't really need to "sleep" and therefore dedicated the majority of her life to working. At times she would go weeks or months at a time without a single day off. Al was unaware of her graveyard shifts.

**UYA - Age: 21**

Captain Sasha requested Al to stick around to join the Q-Force and Al insisted that Sasha should recruit Mina as well. Even though Mina didn't particularly care for the operation, she decided to take on the offer anyway. Mainly because she didn't want to run the shack by herself. Mina immediately recognized Clank as the holo-film character Secret Agent Clank and was overjoyed to be working with him. When Ratchet introduced himself to her, Mina teased him for his name, prompting him to dislike her at first.

Later, Mina was approached by Courtney Gears and was captured by her bodyguards in the limo. She attempted to turn Mina into a robot with the biobliterator ray, yet it ~mysteriously~ didn't work (hmm I wonder why). Mina escaped as Ratchet and Klunk made their way inside, but didn't see her until they battled with Courtney. Mina burst in and saved them at the last minute, delivering the final blow. Ratchet thanked Mina for saving their lives, she apologized for being rude earlier, and the two started seeing each other as friends. She made sure to inform them about Nefarious' plan. Although the biobliterator ray didn't properly work on her, Mina's circuitry was damaged. But she told everyone else it was just a severe migraine and remained quarantined on the Starship Phoenix for a while.

Al helped fix her up and she went back to work. Mina continued to aid the Q-Force and the Galactic Rangers in stopping Dr. Nefarious. After their victory, Mina and Al began to hang out with Ratchet and Clank more frequently.

**Deadlocked - Age: 22**

Along with Ratchet, Clank, and Al, Mina was captured by Gleeman Vox and forced into the Dreadzone games. She remained with Al and Clank while Ratchet risked his life in the games. After Al became "Cyber Al", Mina felt even more connected to him than before; as he told her that she was no longer the only cyborg around.

**Tools of Destruction - Age: 25**

After knowing Mina for a few years at this point, Ratchet and Clank began to grow suspicious of her odd lifestyle. All they ever knew from her was that she worked a lot and only hung out with them and Al. One day when the three get together, they intend to ask Mina about her family life (as she barely ever mentioned them). However, Tachyon showed up with the intention of killing Ratchet. The three steal his ship, fall under cryosleep, and end up in the Polaris Galaxy.

Mina remained with Ratchet and Clank as they navigated the galaxy, learning more about Ratchet's race and true origins. At some point, Mina and Clank become separated from Ratchet as he and Talwyn ended up captured and placed in an unknown prison. Not being in charge of any current missions, Mina didn't know what to do or where to go. Clank became her guide for the time being.

After sustaining serious injuries during a battle, Mina's left side of her face became completely exposed, revealing her true self to Clank. She found it funny how it took him so long to figure it out. Mina then explained her entire history to Clank, lamenting over putting her family in debt, and broke down. She insisted to Clank that it was all her fault -claiming she had "ruined their lives"- and that for years she had attempted to make everyone else's lives easier while never focusing on her own. Clank consoled Mina, expressing to her that no matter what her true form was, he still saw her as a friend regardless. At that point forward, Mina declared to Clank that he now had her full trust.

Clank received the vision from the Zoni that Ratchet and Talwyn were locked up in Zordoom Prison. Mina didn't particularly believe in the Zoni, but listened to Clank anyway, and took them to Zordoom to save their friends. After the jailbreak, Mina told Ratchet and Talwyn everything. Both of which were shocked and could barely believe what they heard. Mina shifted the attention away from herself and convinced the others to focus on the more important task: Defeating Tachyon.

After Tachyon's defeat, Mina apologized to Ratchet and Clank for hiding such secrets from them for so long; promising she would be more open to them. Once again, the Zoni appeared, visible to everyone, and took Clank away. Mina was on the verge of another mental breakdown and demanded that she help find him. Ratchet insisted that it was best for Mina to focus on herself and see her family instead. She took his advice and that was when Ratchet and Talwyn went off to search for Clank themselves.


	2. Act 1 Chapter 1

**Act 1, Chapter 1**

It had been a few weeks since Mina revealed the truth about her past to Ratchet and Clank. Not long afterwards, the gang defeated Tachyon, and Clank was taken away by the Zoni. Mina wanted to join Ratchet and Talwyn in their search for him, but Ratchet insisted that she should go back to her family to reconcile with them. She decided to take his advice and stick around in Polaris where her aunt Adelaide lived. The Markazian Adelaide, or "Ada", was a retired Polaris defense soldier. She lived with her wife, Colette, a Cazar who worked as a combat medic and later became a regular nurse. The two organized a family reunion, where Mina did, in fact, see her Bogonian parents and siblings again. It was the first time Mina had seen or spoken to her family in years. Lots of arguments and tears were blown at one another for days. At the end of the reunion, everyone explained to Mina that even though she is now a robot, she's still their beloved daughter, sister, and niece. This made her feel better about herself; but not enough to stop covering herself with electronic prosthetics from the watch she prompted her parents to buy for her.

Mina told her aunts of her adventures in the Solana Galaxy, as well as her contribution to saving Polaris from Tachyon. Although she left out the detail about Clank's capture, as they were worried enough already. After the family quarrels died down, Mina decided it was time to start looking for work. Being stuck in Polaris, she was in desperate need of finding new employment as her family's debt wasn't going to get smaller on its own. Afterall, Ratchet and Talwyn were still out searching for clues. So she figured she might as well settle down for a bit and look around for work in various places across Markazia.

Ada and Colette pitched in some help by telling all of their friends and coworkers about their incredibly skilled niece. If a machine or an idea of a machine existed, Mina could build, modify, or fix it. Soon, the entire local community recognized Mina as the gifted engineer that she was. Even though she managed to get a few interviews, she had no luck in getting an actual job. Leaving her incredibly bored and irritable.

One day, Mina sat at an outdoor bar where she would watch people walk by as she sipped on a margarita and got lost in her thoughts. She still missed her dear friends greatly and hoped they were all doing okay. Ratchet promised Mina before she left that he would call her. She hadn't heard a word from him at all since then. From her peripheral vision, Mina saw someone sit on the stool directly next to her. This irritated her as there were plenty of empty seats that weren't so close. She gave them no attention as she continued sipping her drink and watching people going about their business. Mina could feel this person staring at her. Growing uncomfortable, she was about ready to turn her head to ask them if she could help them. Before she could, the person finally spoke; "Who would've thought I'd need to travel across the galaxy to find the best engineer?"

The voice was so familiar, so dark, so chilling. But she couldn't quite figure out exactly where she remembered that voice from. Mina very slowly turned her head to stare into burning red optics. _It's Dr. Nefarious!_ She thought to herself while attempting to maintain a blank expression. Years had gone by since Mina aided the Q-Force and Galactic Rangers to fight against Nefarious and his plot to turn the Solana Galaxy's population into robots. It had been established and experienced first-hand that Nefarious was a very powerful, dangerously smart villain. Who knows what he could be capable of against Mina as she was completely alone and defenseless? His presence gave off negative energy that felt like a lingering storm cloud, waiting to erupt with lighting at any moment. The doctor could see every ounce of fear in Mina's eyes and he loved it as he smirked back at her. Mina's entire body went stiff as her thoughts raced faster by the second. _Stay calm, stay calm_. She felt horrified for her safety and confused as to what the hell he could possibly want with her. The two stared at each other for what felt like a full minute. Mina finally found her voice as she spoke in a serious, dark tone, "What's up?" _Oh my gosh, Mina, you are so stupid._

"First off, I know you are a former Q-Force member." Nefarious said, "But I also know you're not actually a squishy, which means you're better than them."

"Uhm-"

"You're a very skilled engineer, and I'm in need of one as soon as possible." He cut right to the point. Mina had trouble processing what she was hearing. One of the most feared supervillains in the Solana Galaxy might've actually been offering to recruit her for whatever dastardly plans he had. Which got Mina thinking, he was casually out in public by himself, as if nobody in this side of Polaris even knew who he was. Nefarious leaned in closer "Listen, I have found a way to manipulate time. If you join me, I will take you back in time, before your… incident happened."

Mina once again lost her voice. She felt uncomfortable at how much he knew about her. She didn't even know if his statement was true or not; whether or not he found a way to control time itself. Nefarious also added that he was more than happy to pay her a hefty amount of bolts for her work. Which was fine with Mina; she definitely didn't want to work for a single reward. "Care to explain," Mina spoke very softly with her head tilted down slightly while still making eye contact, "how exactly you're able to control time? And what you plan to do with it?"

Nefarious' face lit up as he realized Mina's slowly becoming more interested. "Before I tell you anything else, you need to tell me that you won't contact that rat again."

'_That rat'? What a jerk._ "I haven't heard from Ratchet since Clank was… I, I haven't heard from them in a long time, anyway." Mina felt her chest get tight as she almost revealed to Nefarious about Clank's capture. She didn't know if he could do anything with that information, but she didn't want to wait and find out. "...Alright." Nefarious responded. "I have discovered a giant time machine located in the center of the universe. I am currently in the process of taking it over. However, my A.I.'s are complete imbeciles-"

"So, you need a sentient imbecile to help you out a bit?" Mina interrupted.

"...Yes."

Any sensible person would know that working alongside a supervillain is both inherently criminal, and just plain stupid. Especially a supervillain as destructive as Nefarious. But still, the temptation was too great. Mina's accident wasn't just the cause of losing her organic body, but also putting her family in poverty after she convinced them to buy the watch for her. Undoing the accident would fix all the problems as if they never happened in the first place. Working with Nefarious would also open many doors for many different things. Perhaps Mina could defeat him while working right under his nose, or could go out and warn the public if anything were to inevitably go wrong. Or maybe that's just how she justified her own thoughts to herself. Too many possibilities lay right before her, and she didn't know when an opportunity like this would come up again. Mina got the idea that she would end up changing her mind if Nefarious told her anything more. She didn't want to waste all that exciting temptation.

"Alright. I'll do it." Mina confirmed.

Nefarious was rather stunned by her response. He didn't expect her to comply so quickly, or at all. Especially considering the fact that he didn't even tell her what his actual plans were. It seemed very suspicious, so recruiting her suddenly seemed like a bad idea. But where else would he find a fellow robot who was also such a brilliant engineer? As long as she was obedient, nothing should go wrong. Nefarious gave Mina permission to tell her family that she would be gone for a while. She told them over the holo-phone on her watch that she got accepted for a job and would be gone for the business for quite some time. They felt no suspicion and congratulated her as well as tried to keep her on the line to continue chatting.

"Well it's about time you found a job!" Ada exclaimed. "Then you won't have to be stuck here in Polaris with us much longer, huh? Make sure you dazzle your managers and coworkers. And don't forget to write to us about it!"

Colette joined in, "Oh, I hope you enjoy your new job, hun!"

"Thanks, Colette." Mina was about to hang up until Ada decided to continue the conversation.

"I realize you're familiar with the whole adventuring thing, but be careful when you're traveling around here! The galaxy is still recovering after Tachyon's defeat. And who _knows_ what's going to happen next?"

Mina uncomfortably turned her head to make eye contact with an ever-growing impatient Nefarious. He tapped his claw on the counter as he let out a long, annoyed growl. "Y-yeah." Mina stuttered. "Well, I have to go now. I'll talk to you later, okay?"

"Okay, Mina. Sorry to bother you so much. Have a good business trip!"

"And try not to get into too much trouble, alright?" Colette added.

"I have everything under control. Love you guys!" Mina immediately hung up.

"Got everything you need?" Nefarious asked, with an irritated sigh.

"Y-yes-"

"Good." He grabbed onto Mina's watch -to avoid touching her "skin"-, and started dragging her away from the bar and into the middle of an empty alley in town. She quickly decided that she probably shouldn't have agreed to this job. But it was too late to turn back. Nefarious called Lawrence to have him pick them up, and it seemed he was already waiting nearby for the call; as he arrived very quickly. The little ship's door opened and Nefarious quickly walked in and sat down in the passenger seat. Mina walked into the doorway, "Hey, Lawrence" she greeted him with a hint of nervousness in her voice. "Hello, Minerva." He responded apathetically without looking at her.

"You can call me Mina. It's okay." She said while making her way into the back. There wasn't a proper seat for her to sit in, so she sat on the floor and held onto a bar that stuck out on the side of the inner wall. The doors came to a close and the ship flew off into the sky. Then Lawrence shifted it into overdrive to make a jump to wherever they were planning to go. The ship traveled so fast that Mina would've been launched through the windshield had she not clung onto that bar. Within a few minutes, they made it to the Nefarious space station. The station was built entirely to resemble the doctor's face. Mina stared out the window in awe, and in discomfort. _This guy's got some serious problems._

Lawrence landed the ship and let Nefarious and Mina walk out before him. Nefarious stood in Mina's way, stopping her dead in her tracks. "Let's go over some rules," He began, pacing back and forth. "When you're here, you will do exactly as I say, when I say it. I will not tolerate slow working or blatant stupidity. And you will refer to me as 'Doctor' or 'Sir'. Do you understand?"

_I'm definitely not calling him 'Sir'._ "I understand, Doctor." Mina complied.

Inside the Space Station, Mina was given her very own room. The room was completely empty besides a small couch in the middle of the floor in front of a tiny holovision. The floor was poorly kept as it was covered in dust and cracks. A single window on the wall had a view of the starry sky, which was the most pleasant thing about the entire room. During her stay, Mina was given plenty of work to do. Whether that was building and repairing mechs, organizing robot prototypes, or just bringing Nefarious whatever he may ask for. On slower days, Nefarious would have Mina do petty tasks for him just to keep her busy. Every other week, Mina would send holomail to her aunts to let them know how well her job was going. Just to make sure they didn't get suspicious.

Every time Nefarious directly asked Mina to do a new task, she did everything in her power to not let him see how nervous she was. Just the way he literally looked down on her and spoke in such a dark voice gave her chills every time. Maybe if he was a bit shorter, he wouldn't have been so intimidating. "Now," He began, "When you're working on fixing the defense system's mechanism, make sure you keep track of all the wiring and ammo! I don't want you to screw up by swapping the lasers and missiles!"

Mina nodded her head, "Okay. But you don't have to overly explain it to me. It's not brain surgery-"

"No. But it is rocket science. Get busy!" He walked off.

Mina mumbled under her breath, "Jerkwad."

"What was that?" Nefarious stopped and turned his head.

"I-I said, 'I'll get right to it'."

"Uh-huh. That's what I thought you said."

While fixing the canons, Mina was struck with inspiration. She had all the tools and equipment required to bring all of her ideas to life. Whenever Nefarious was nowhere to be seen, that's when Mina could work in peace and enjoy herself to a certain degree. Mina's new idea was later tested on some asteroids that floated a little too close to the station. She watched with delight as the rocks blew up.

Nefarious came back over to check on Mina after hearing constant explosions. "Whatever you're doing, keep it quiet!" He scolded. "I can barely hear myself think!"

Holding in sass, Mina decided to show Nefarious what she had proudly completed. "You see what I did here?" She took aim for another asteroid. "I found a way to combine the missiles and rockets with the lasers. After the missiles blow up on a target, it sends off an electrical charge for added damage. Just to give an extra punch to more stubborn opponents and whatnot. Well, whaddya think?"

Nefarious couldn't help but watch in awe as Mina showed off her latest work. If so much damage could be done to an asteroid, he could only imagine what it would do to a pestering squishy. He could just imagine helpless ships being blown to bits. It was perfect. "I acknowledge your sufficient work on this project." For once, Nefarious didn't sound angry. "I will be expecting this level of excellence from now on. You better not start slacking off!" And there he went again.

"Yes. Of course. Wouldn't dream of it." Mina replied apathetically. Somehow, Nefarious didn't seem to notice her sarcasm. She felt very accomplished and proud of herself; both for her successful project and just the fact that she had received an attempt at a compliment from a big, mean supervillain.

Mina went right back to working and quickly began to pick up on more tasks as time went on. All day. All night. Everyday and every night. Time almost seemed non-existent as work kept piling up. Mina very rarely ever had time to herself. Whenever she did have time to herself, however, she was very lonely. And when she was lonely, she would start to question her thoughts and actions. _Am I seriously working for the villain who has tried to conquer Solana?_ She would ask herself. _What would Ratchet and Clank say about this? I hope they're doing okay-_

Mina's door opened out of nowhere, causing her to jump. "YOU." Nefarious shouted as he entered her room. "Why are you just sitting there?!"

"What else am I supposed to do at the moment?" Mina asked. "And I have a name, by the way."

Nefarious growled as he walked up to and got uncomfortably close to her. "Errr… Whatever, Mia." He rolled his bright red, glowing eyes.

"It's Mi_na_. With an 'N.'" She corrected.

"I don't care. I found a pile of broken down bots on the other side of the station and I would very much appreciate if you cleaned them up."

"Ugh. You were just there, why wouldn't _you_ clean them up?" Mina huffed. "And I'm not a janitor-"

"DON'T TALK BACK TO ME, YOU TWIT! You work for ME, remember?! NOT the other way around!"

_Well screw you too, Doctor._ "Alright, fine. I'll head over there right now-"

"Uhh sir-" Lawrence had very quietly peeked into the room.

"What is it, Lawrence?!" Nefarious asserted.

"Might we have a word outside?" Lawrence responded. Nefarious grunted as he glared at Mina, as she stared back in discomfort. Lawrence and Nefarious walked out of her room and closed the door. "I do not think you're going about this in the right way." Lawrence pointed out.

"What are you going on about?!" Nefarious hissed.

"You want Mina to be working with you, not just for you." Lawrence continued. "If you want to use her abilities to your advantage, bullying her may not be the best way to get her to do so." Nefarious growled and grunted at Lawrence's words. Being as arrogant as he is, Nefarious never liked to be proven wrong. After pacing back and forth as Lawrence remained silent, Nefarious walked back into Mina's room and she stared back at him with a blank expression. "Nevermind." He mumbled. "You don't have to clean up the bots." Mina opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, Nefarious called in a worker bot to bring in a hologame system for her. "Why don't you uhh…. take a load off." He immediately walked out.

Mina was confused. "Uhm.. Okay." She said aloud, even though Nefarious was no longer in the room with her. She never would've thought he was the gamer type. Other than his villainy, all Mina knew about his hobbies was that he was a huge Secret Agent Clank fan. She decided to plug in the gaming console and searched through the downloads to find any game that looked interesting to her. Mina came across a fighting game that starred Nefarious himself and Captain Qwark. She couldn't resist. She just had to play a game that looked so ridiculous.

An hour later, Nefarious became irritated at loud noises coming from Mina's room. He could hear his own minions' muffled cheering along with Mina's gleeful yelling. As he burst in, he saw she was surrounded by a crowd of his robots, watching her play that fighting game and cheering her on. Everyone in the room paused and stared at Nefarious. "Sorry." Mina apologized. "I didn't mean to make so much noise." Nefarious disregarded what she said and walked over to the back of the couch to look over her shoulder to stare at the holo-vision screen. "Did you- Did you beat my high score?" He asked.

"Y-yeah I did." Mina responded.

"And are you playing as… me?"

"Why would I want to play as Qwark?"

Nefarious felt a laugh coming on, but pretended his throat needed clearing. "Well uhh…" he said, "Just keep it down. I'm trying to concentrate."

Mina and the robots never kept their eyes off of Nefarious as he walked back out of the room without another word. "That was awkward." said one of the robots.

"Tell me about it." Mina responded. "One minute he's screaming, the next minute he's perfectly calm. Someone's moody. '' The crowd of robots all chattered in agreement. Mina chuckled as she pressed the "play" button to continue the game.

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_Whew! After almost a year of developing this fic, I have finally published the first chapter! Before I go, I'd like to take a moment to talk about two dear friends of mine who helped make this possible. TheLilyoftheValley here on FFNet, and CSHanners on Instagram. If it weren't for them, I never would've had the confidence to show my writing to the world. And I appreciate them greatly for that. _

_I hope you enjoyed this and I'll see you in the next chapter!_


	3. Act 1 Chapter 2

**Act 1, Chapter 2**

Months had gone by since Mina made the decision to partner up with Nefarious to conquer the "time machine". The work never got any easier and Nefarious was always very demanding. Luckily Mina was left on her own to work on the projects, so she didn't hear his constant yelling quite as often. The quiet was nice, but Mina felt bored not having anyone to talk to.

During a slow day, Nefarious decided to act out scenes of a soap opera that he had written himself, with a robot minion of his. In one hand was his script, in his other hand, a small blaster. "Let's try this again!" Nefarious asserted. His disinterested minion wasn't looking forward to the next several minutes as it shook its head while glancing through the script.

"ACTION-" Nefarious' command was interrupted by a knock on the door, followed by Mina's voice.

She called out, "Hey, Doctor?" She was barely loud enough to be heard from the other side of the door.

Nefarious' eyes widened in nervousness as he snatched his minion's script and scrambled to hide the loose papers and the blaster under the couch and coffee table. A few more pages flew free and Nefarious rushed to get them out of sight as he shouted back, "What is it?!"

"Can I come in for a second? I need help with something."

Nefarious groaned as he pressed a red button on his desk to open the door. Mina walked in with her head held high and hands in her pockets. The doctor sneered, "What is it that you can't figure out yourself?"

Mina's eyes glanced from the nervous minion back to her boss, "I just need help activating one of the outside transports."

Walking towards Mina with a quick pace, Nefarious accidentally stirred up a bit of wind that picked up a piece of the script that was hidden under the table. He opened his mouth only to be interrupted by the crinkling sound of the paper. He froze as Mina moved her attention down to the script as she read the title, "_Night of the Living Squishies_".

She smiled, "What's this?" She asked. "Are you writing a movie or something?"

Nefarious snatched up the paper. "Before you interrupted," He grumbled. "I was trying to rehearse a space opera that I have written..."

"Oooh can I watch?"

"Ugh. Fine."

Mina walked over to the couch where she sat with one leg crossed. Nefarious scowled at her ugly, squishy, beaming face. He ordered his minion to pick up the pieces of the scripts, forcing Mina to fold her legs up to her chest as it reached under the couch.

The awkward silence was finally broken as Nefarious shouted loudly enough to make both the minion and Mina jump, "ACTION! You'll never take me alive, Qwark!"

Nefarious waved his gun around as the minion stuttered its lines, "I-I will take you alive or dead!" The minion pretended to be shot and dramatically fell to the floor.

"You MORON!" Nefarious yelled. "You missed an entire segment of dialogue!"

Mina let out a snicker, "I'm sorry, I can't help it."

"I have feelings, you know." the minion responded.

"I just thought that was a little too dramatic."

"Ugh it's an opera!" Nefarious asserted as he rolled his eyes. "It's SUPPOSED to be dramatic!" Nefarious interjected.

"I know that. But a little more action could help make this scene fuller.-

"Well since YOU'RE such a good critic, why don't YOU act this out with me?!" Nefarious snatched the script from the other robot and threw it at Mina, smacking her in the face. She caught the papers and stood up from the couch to walk over to where Nefarious was standing.

"Act 4, scene 3.." Nefarious started again.

Mina corrected, "Act 3 scene 4, actually-"

"ACTION! You'll never take me alive, Qwark!"

"U-uhm I will take you alive or dead!" Mina's acting was barely any better than Nefarious'. The robot who acted out the scene to begin with was still in the room and decided to watch. Mina and Nefarious acted out a battle scene with Mina using her fingers as a gun and running around the room. She neglected to actually read the next few lines as she was too focused on the fact that Nefarious was chasing her with a real gun.

The two were then on opposite sides of the coffee table. When Mina leaned left, so did Nefarious. Then she tried leaning right, only for him to copy. She bolted to her right, then Nefarious called out his next line, "At long last, Qwark, you will die!"

Mina felt amused by the energetic 'acting' session, as her lips formed a tiny grin. The minion was still watching, yet constantly moved spots as the two 'actors' kept running around. Mina leaped over the couch in then jumped off the coffee table, only to end up rolling on the floor. She sat up to make eye-contact with Nefarious as he stood in front of her, glaring down.

Mina finally glanced to her script again, _'Qwark gets shot, immediately collapses' Okay, I got that part right._

Nefarious held his gun right at Mina's forehead. "Any last words?" Nefarious growled.

"Yes," Mina replied in a more well-acted tone. "I've always looked up to you. I only pushed you around because I've secretly admired you for all those years. And I knew I could never live up to your powerful image..." _Wait… Huh?_

Mina looked up with a confused expression as Nefarious stared back. They locked eyes for a solid three seconds before the robot from across the room interrupted; "Should I leave you two alone?"

"NO" Nefarious shouted back and threw his script at the robot.

Mina helped herself up off the floor. "So, how did I do?" She asked.

"What? Oh, y-you did fine." Nefarious responded with a slight crack in his voice. Mina's eyes widened at the attempted compliment. The minion started to inch away and rushed out of the room while Mina and Nefarious weren't looking.

"But you seriously need to educate yourself." Nefarious addressed. He put down his script then turned on the holo-vision to play a copy of the first season of 'Lance and Janice'.

"Oh no. _That_ soap opera?" Mina cringed. "No way."

Multiple episodes later, Mina's eyeliner had completely run down her face, barely looking away from the steamy drama. She sat huddled up on the couch as Nefarious was sitting on the other end. "This show is _so_ ridiculous." Mina pointed out. "I think I love it."

Nefarious let out a quiet snicker every time Mina had something to say about whatever was going on in each episode. He never spoke unless he was muttering the dialogue that he knew by heart. The conclusion of their current episode ended on Janice proclaiming that she would never leave Lance for his evil twin brother, Englebert.

"Okay, but can you imagine if Janice actually did go for Englebert?" Mina suggested. "Just think about how awkward the family reunions would be! Heh, it'd be funny, though."

"Shh!" Nefarious shushed her. "Keep watching! And... get your feet off my couch."

Mina readjusted her seating position and continued to have her eyes glued to the holo-vision. A few episodes later, Mina slowly drifted to sleep. Her head sank and jerked back up several times before she finally gave in. Nefarious paid no attention until he realized she had collapsed. Mina's pudgy face laid right up against his left arm. He cringed and shuddered in absolute horror. Regardless of her skin being false, it still felt like a squishy was touching him.

A moment went by before Nefarious concluded what he wanted to do. He attempted to keep Mina's head up with his right hand, to try and slide away to let her fully lay down on the couch. Nefarious had barely moved when he realized he had gotten his claws caught in Mina's short, fluffy hair. The robot remained quiet as he groaned in frustration, trying to untangle the brown locks from his joints; only to make it worse. Everytime Mina made a noise or moved, Nefarious would immediately sit back to his original position until she went still again. Finally, his sharp talons were freed and he was ready to move over-

Lawrence suddenly invited himself into the room, "Sir-"

Nefarious instantaneously got up from the couch, allowing Mina's head to drop and smack down, waking her up immediately. "LAWRENCE!" he yelled. "Knock before you enter!"

"Apologies, Sir..." Lawrence glanced over at a groggy and confused Mina; who was looking away from her boss and his butler. Lawrence informed Nefarious that he had work to attend to and should get right to it. The scientist growled in irritation but complied, leaving Mina behind.

After the two left, Mina came to the awkward realization that she was left alone in her boss' room; then made a more important realization that she spent hours alone with said boss. She looked around then wiped off her ruined eyeliner before leaving to return to her own room.

* * *

Mina sat at her couch and reached over to the coffee table to turn on the communicator. It had a long list of various employees and troopers who worked around the space station. She decided to call in a worker who specialized in giving massages. It didn't take more than a few minutes before it showed up. A knock was heard on the door.

"Come on in!" Mina called out.

The door opened and the bot entered the room. It looked just like any other of Nefarious' troops; a bit taller than Mina, transparent green dome, and two large pincers for hands that were connected to its body with flexible cords. It had one large glowing eye in the center of its blank face. It held its pincers together and didn't move another inch.

"Aww… don't be shy." Mina smiled and gestured for the bot to come closer. She laid down on her couch, "What's your name?"

"Huh? My name?" It asked in a slightly emotionless, robotic voice.

"Yeah!" Mina beamed.

"Oh. My serial number is RG-073."

"Hmm, could I possibly give you a nickname?"

"What do you have in mind?"

"How about… I dunno. Roger?"

"Sure… that sounds fine."

Mina felt out her hand, "Hi, Roger. My name is Mina. '' The two shook 'hands'.

He started carefully rubbing her shoulders and back. Roger struggled to work with her metallic dents underneath the layers of false organic materials -as well as Mina's bodysuit that she didn't feel like removing-. "So, what's your story, Roger?" Mina asked.

"I'm not one for storytelling," Roger continued rubbing her back. "But I'm incredibly interested in _your_ story."

"Well, I've got lots of dents and bumps. So we'll be here a while. If you're willing to listen then I definitely have plenty to tell you."

Mina told Roger her story from when she was a teenager employed at MegaCorp in Bogon, to the accident, to her 'reformation', to her family being stuck in debt, all the way up to the present. Although she decided to leave out the parts of her story that included defeating Nefarious and destroying his biobliterator.

"What a strange way for a robot to live their life." said Roger. "I could never imagine intentionally appearing organic."

"And I'd give anything to _be_ organic again." Mina affirmed. "Obviously, because I'm here.  
Nefarious is so scary sometimes, don't you think?"

"Yes. He yells a lot." Roger rubbed out the last dent in Mina's back and helped her sit up. She began to wobble as she had gotten dizzy. Roger helped her remain still. "You must have incredibly talented skills if he recruited someone as young as you. Especially because you look organic. He hates them, you know."

"Yeah, I'm still in disbelief that he actually hired me. Also, Nefarious is a bit different from what I was expecting."

Roger tilted his head, "What do you mean?"

"Well, for one thing, he has a bunch of weird hobbies. I never would've thought he'd be _that_ into holo-games and soap operas of all things. Can you imagine that? A big, scary supervillain who loves simple little things in life? But it's true. He gets really into them, too. It's kind of funny."

"You seem to enjoy talking about him."

"Hmm? Oh, I guess I was rambling a little too much-"

Before Mina could finish her sentence, Nefarious barged in, "MINA!" His yelling made both Mina and Roger jump. "Quit socializing with my minion and go out and fix the VX-99!"

"Ohh-kay..." She began, "Where is it?"

"Planet Terachnos. You'll need to fly yourself there. I have already uploaded the coordinates onto a small ship here at the station. Come with me."

As the two walked in silence, Mina's gaze was entirely focused on Nefarious as he was walking in front of her. The scientist caught Mina's stare in his peripheral vision and turned his head to look back at her. She quickly focused her sight down at her feet as her cheeks turned pink. The duo made it outside where the ships were being kept. Nefarious pointed out a dark purple, one-seated ship. The doctor made sure to give Mina a security card so that she would be able to come back to the station without issue. He watched as Mina climbed in, put on her seatbelt, and turned the machine on. "Oh, and one more thing," Nefarious hissed, "You had better come back."

Mina silented nodded her head as she lowered the door to the ship to fly off to Planet Terachnos. Mina let out a long groan as she continued flying. "What kind of mess have I gotten myself into?" She asked herself aloud.

Nefarious watched Mina as she flew off away from the Space Station. As soon as she disappeared from sight, he walked back inside to be greeted by Lawrence. "Sir," He began. "I have a theory that we should probably discuss."

"It had better be important, Lawrence."

"It's not as important as accessing Clank's memory-"

"Then I don't care." The doctor walked past Lawrence as he was heavily resisting the urge to respond with snarky remarks. Still, he felt his 'theory' was too important to go unmentioned.

"Sir, I think she likes you." He said.

"Wait, what?" Nefarious turned around.

"I'm serious. I think Mina is attracted to you."

"... Why?"

"I don't know, Sir. Why would anyone be attracted to you?"

Nefarious didn't pick up on his Butler's comment as he was too confused at the first statement. He had so much trouble processing it that he could only stutter and babble as he paced back and forth. Even a highly intelligent scientist couldn't figure out what to do with such information. "She really isn't anything like the rest of the Q-force, is she?" Nefarious speculated.

"Definitely not, Sir." Lawrence responded.

Nefarious stood with a smirk on his face and his arms crossed. "Hah! No wonder that squishy wannabe is so easily manipulated. Oh, the possibilities…"

* * *

_Hey guys! In a couple days, I will be away on vacation for a week so I wanted to get this out before I left. Life's been a lot of ups and downs lately but I'm still working hard on all my projects. I've got lots more to share for when I come back so I hope to see you then!_


	4. Act 1 Chapter 3

**Act 1, Chapter 3**

Before long, Mina arrived in Axiom City. She stared out her windows in amazement of the plethora of lit up buildings. The navigation unit on her ship lead her to a very populated portion of the city, which attracted a lot of attention. Several Terachnoids looked up at Mina and kept their eyes on her as she parked the ship. Her face remained blank as she stepped out.

"So, Nefarious recruited a random young woman?" asked one Terachnoid. "I didn't think he was _that_ type".

"Huh?" Mina asked in confusion. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I'll show you were the VX-99 is." The squid-like creature ignored Mina's question and led her to a levitating taxi where they both climbed aboard. The massive city consisted of giant skyscrapers, flying cars, and tons of other Terachnoids going about their business. Mina also noticed several of Nefarious' troops throughout the whole city, patrolling every area. "Sooo," Mina began, "What exactly is this 'VX-99' used for, anyway?"

"Nefarious created it to help defend us and our city against anyone who tries to interfere with… his plan." the Terachnoid responded. "Although I'm not sure how true that is. I'm getting pretty sick of him, to be honest."

Mina shrugged, "I understand that. I work and live at the space station. So I'm always dealing with-"

"Wait, wait." The Terachnoid interrupted. "You actually _live_ there?"

"Yeah? It's my workplace."

"And you're there on your own free will?"

"Uh-huh."

"You're crazy."

Mina's face formed a scowl before she turned to look away from the Terachnoid. She stared off at the city as the taxi continued to carry the two. She thought to herself, _It is a little weird that I'm the only one living at the space station. The only one who isn't a creation of Nefarious, anyway. Why do I live there again? I guess it's not so bad all the time. Roger is fun to talk to. Even Nefarious himself isn't always awful-_

"Uhh… miss lady? Hello?" The Terachnoid waved his hand in front of Mina's gaze, snapping her back into reality.

"O-oh, sorry."

The taxi came to a halt and the VX-99 was just a short walk away. The giant, skyscraper-sized machine was still smoking as another Terachnoid wearing huge glasses was on the scene. Mina's face lit up at the sight of the massive machine. It wasn't just big, it was beautifully built. Besides the obvious issues with the burning engine. The ground was covered in various tool boxes and scattered materials; as well as a pair of gravity boots.

"Okay so this didn't last long at all." The second Terachnoid said while looking in the direction of the one with Mina.

"Hey! It wasn't MY fault the reactor had a short fuse!" The first Terachnoid snapped back.

"Maybe if Nefarious really was as smart as he claims to be, his machines wouldn't constantly be breaking down!" Both of the Technoids continued to shout at each other as Mina slid past them.

"Aaanyways," She interjected while picking up the pair of gravity boots to put on. "Miss 'crazy' here has a giant mech to repair. So if you two will excuse me-" A few clumsy jumps and a climb later, Mina had reached the center of the VX-99.

The young woman took one look through the smoking green dome at the core and realized there was a powered down turret in the middle of it. She opened the dome to be greeted with a massive cloud of hot smoke. Mina took a step back to allow the smoke to clear just enough to get a better view of the turret's engine. Sweat dripped from her forehead as she examined the rest of the core to discover more of the mechanism was falling apart. Her face lit up at the exhilarating thought of spending all day working on such a fascinating machine. "Welp," Mina pulled up her gloves and wiped off her sweaty face, "Time to get to work."

Mina mumbled and hummed to herself as she carried tools in her mouth while working with both hands. The turrets arms and firepower took hours to work on. Everytime Mina attempted a simple test, she got burned and shot at by mistake. Luckily, every inch of her damaged synthetic skin easily regenerated. Her voice would squeak and crack whenever she yelped in surprise at her own accidents with the turret.

As Mina continued working, she could vaguely hear conversations between the two Terachnoids; who were still loitering.

"Why did Nefarious hire a Markazian?" The first Terachnoid asked.

"Well apparently she's super skilled." The second one responded.

"Yeah, but members of our race have been doing most of the work for years. What's so special about her? Markazians aren't exactly known for being highly intelligent like we are."

Mina scoffed at their comments and refused to give them a real reaction. She kept up the hard work yet couldn't help but think about what those two were saying. _They have a point_, She wondered to herself. _Why hire someone like me when there's already dozens of Terachnoids already working for him and doing a lot of the same stuff as me? Unless I really am more intelligent than them? Does Nefarious really think that highly of me? I also used to work with Qwark and he hates Qwark... His hatred seems oddly personal._

Her curiosities kept running through her mind, causing her to struggle staying focused on the more important task. She stood in place with her arms crossed, staring at the turret and engine she was supposed to be working on. Even though she was employed months ago, Mina didn't ever think too deep as to why she was hired. Hearing the Terachnoids noticing the same oddities only made her think more. She had to admit; the idea of Nefarious thinking that highly of her felt good. At the same time, she didn't know why she even cared.

Mina shook her head and walked over to the other side of the turret. A smaller portion of the mechanism needed attention yet she lacked the tools. So, Mina moved over to the edge of the machine and crouched down. "HEY!" She shouted, "Can one of you throw me a smaller wrench pleaaase?"

The Terachnoids stared at each other and then back up at Mina. "WHAAAAT?" The glasses-wearing one yelled back.

"THROW ME A SMALLER WRENCH! PLEASE!"

"WE CAN'T HEAR YOU!"

"SMALLER. WRENCH. THROW ME A SMALLER WRENCH!"

The first Terachnoid then threw the wrench up at Mina, only for it to barely reach her. He tried once again, only to miss yet again. The Terachnoid with the glasses snatched the wrench from the first one's hand, then threw it with all his might. Mina leaned forward too quickly, allowing the wrench to smack her in the forehead; causing her to lose her position and fall. She landed and created a loud THUD on the ground. The two Terachnoids gasped in horror. Mina got up without issue, laughing uncontrollably as she stood to her feet. She decided to playfully through nuts and screws at them, "This is what you get for hitting me in the face!" Mina cackled.

The two looked at each other with confused, offended expressions. They whispered and quietly laughed to each other and then decided to play along. The three started to have a full on battle with each other as they threw whatever small items and light tools they could reach. All of them broke out into laughter every time one of them ended up getting hit. None of them were hit hard enough to cause any pain, so it was all fun and games. The stress of being bossed around by Nefarious and his troops really got to them, so it was nice to be able to relax and have fun for a bit.

Mina's particularly obnoxious howling drew the attention of a Nefarious trooper onto the scene. It spoke in a raspy, robotic voice, "Aren't you supposed to be fixing the VX-99?" The three instantly stopped playing and awkwardly stood in place. "Get back to work!" The trooper snapped.

"Uhm, you can't tell me what to do." Mina sassed.

"If you do not get back to work this second, I will report you to Dr. Nefarious immediately."

"On second thought, yes you can-"

Without another word, Mina rushed to climb back up the giant machine. This time, under the constant supervision of the trooper. Another hour went by and the machine was completely fixed and better than ever. It was then taken on a short test run just to make sure that it still worked. As a matter of fact, it worked beautifully. As beautiful as a death machine can be. Every piece of the machine moved perfectly smooth without shorting out or creaking. Mina felt immensely proud of herself for being able to contribute to such an incredible mech. Her grin stretched from ear to ear, holding her hands together and shaking with excitement.

After double checking, Mina decided to climb into her ship to head back to the space station. Before her departure, she waved goodbye to her Terachnoid acquaintances and they waved back. The next thought that came to her head was what Ratchet would think about her fixing such a great machine. Of course, Mina realized that he wouldn't be quite as proud. Her head sunk as she began to feel dismal at the thought about the fact that she was providing aid to a supervillain.

* * *

Mina parked her little ship back at Nefarious' space station. She was quivering while stepping out and ended up tripping over her own feet. She walked inside, turned a corner and jumped with a squeak in her voice as Nefarious was standing right in her way. "I expected to see you come back hours ago." He asserted.

"Sorry." Mina mumbled out an apology. "But I fixed the VX-99. It works better than ever."

"Good." Nefarious responded with a scowl, and immediately started to walk off. Mina glared at Nefarious after he turned his back. Not that she expected much of a response anyway. Still, it was better than being yelled at. This was the first time in a little while that the two were talking face-to-face, and Mina remembered she had been curious about something.

"Doctor, can I ask you a question?" Mina asked.

"No." He continued walking.

"Why do you hate Qwark so much?" She completely disregarded his refusal.

"What?" Nefarious turned around and slowly walked back towards her with his head tilted.

"Not that there's anything likeable about him. But in your play- Qwark's dialogue. A-and just the fact that you've always seemed to hate him the most-"

"You're a former Q-Force member! How can you not know about that?!" Nefarious interrupted.

"Huh, I guess I must've missed that part in the employee orientation thing."

"WELL… It's none of your business!"

"Oh, but my situation with my family and everything I've been trying to fix, that's _your_ business?"

"... Touche."

* * *

Mina sat down on Nefarious' couch as he paced back and forth, explaining his history with Captain Qwark. He explained that the two went to high school together and how Qwark would often bully Nefarious and push him around. "Wow, that's just horrible." Mina cringed. Sure, she was, in fact, a Q-Force member back in the day. Although that was just because her friend, Al was a member and prompted her to join. Not because she particularly wanted to. Mina disliked Qwark for how full of himself he was. That, and he was, oddly enough, very insecure and cowardly at the same time. It always annoyed her.

"I'm guessing you were kind of friends with him, too?" Mina inquired.

"HAH!" Nefarious scoffed. "If anything, _he_ has always looked up to _me_!"

_That's not what I said_. "Uh-huh…" Mina crossed her legs and rested her face in her palms. "I remember how much I hated school, too. Sure, I was good at everything but man did it irritate my teachers. And my peers teased me so much. Well, until they needed help with their homework. It sometimes sucks being so smart, huh?"

Nefarious stopped pacing to make eye contact with Mina, whose face immediately lifted. "Tell me about it!" Nefarious groaned, "Even in my youth, I was constantly surrounded by morons! Nothing's changed except me, of course."

"You've gotten smarter?"

"No! Well, yes..."

Mina let out a quiet snicker then sucked it back in after noticing Nefarious' impatient stare. He continued talking, "If you weren't informed of the rest of this, then you probably didn't know… I was once a squishy." Nefarious hated this fact about himself and hated being reminded of it. Just admitting it made him cringe and shutter.

Mina's big green eyes widened, "You were… You were organic, too?"

Nefarious nodded his head and explained how it happened; mentioning how it all happened at the hands of Qwark.

"Qwark did this to you?" Mina asked. "Heh. I guess he did do something right afterall."

"Literally the _only_ thing he's ever done right!"

Mina smiled as her boss continued his side of the story, but she had trouble listening. Instead, she spaced out as her mind focused on the fact that the squishy-hating mad scientist was once the type of creature he grew to despise. She never met anyone else who survived such a horrific accident and lost their body. The doctors and roboticists who saved Mina's life tried to make her feel better by saying there were others who met a similar tragedy. But they only mentioned people who lost limbs or just parts of their faces. Not their entire bodies. Even Al tried to make Mina feel better after he lost an arm and an eye at the Dreadzone games.

"I… I thought I was the only one." Mina mumbled. She spoke up again in a louder tone, "Is that why you hired me, Doctor?"

"What are you going on about?"

"I'm just wondering," Mina sat up straight and brushed her bangs out of her face with her fingers. "When you heard about me, you were just as surprised, weren't you?"

Nefarious folded his arms and rolled his eyes. "I was in need of a skillful engineer and you met all of my requirements! That's it!"

"I'm not gonna like, make fun of you or anything. It's pretty awful to have something like that happen to you and nobody else understands."

Nefarious' agitation grew as he let out a snarl, "You never know when to shut it, do you?" He pointed to his door, "How about you stop trying to play psychiatrist, make yourself useful, and find work that needs done?! Get out!"

"Alright, alright! Jeez!" Mina swiftly let herself out of Nefarious' room and sighed to herself.

She knew she was supposed to find work to do, but she just couldn't. Nefarious didn't let her talk about all the things that were truly on her mind during their conversation. Instead, she decided to talk to herself about it. She silently walked through the space station, staring at her feet as she processed her thoughts. Of course the grumpy scientist would never admit to anyone as to why he hired Mina. It all finally made more sense to her.

Mina knew exactly how terrifying it was to wake up in a body that wasn't her own. To look in a mirror and see somebody completely different. To have a sudden, significant change happen and believing you're the only one who's ever experienced it; It changes you. Mina knew that better than anyone else in her life. She felt so much relief knowing there was finally someone else who understood. Even if that 'someone else' was an angry villain who's also her boss.

Roger came around the corner, "Hey, Mina." His voice seemed to have more energy in it.

Mina lifted her head and quickly hid her bewildered expression. "Oh hi, Roger."

"I heard you fixed the VX-99?"

"Yep. It's now a perfectly functioning death machine."

"Good job. I knew you were very skilled."

"Aww, thanks."

"So what are you up to now?"

"Well, Nefarious kicked me out of his office so I'm just walking around."

"Hmm… Can I walk around with you? And talk?"

"Sure."

Mina and Roger then started walking around the space station, just talking about themselves and whatever adventures they've been on. Roger had only existed for a little over a year, while Mina was going on 27-years-old. So she definitely had a lot more to talk about. Her robot friend mostly enjoyed just watching her talk. The way she was so expressive with her hands and face fascinated him. Her widening eyes and constantly changing hand gestures were almost humorous to look at. Even if she wasn't trying to be funny.

"Do you ever think that you might be working too hard?" Roger asked.

"Yeah… A lot of the time, really." Mina responded. "I've rarely ever have time to myself, or to anything else. But that's why I'm glad Nefarious is helping me- Oh, wanna know a secret?"

"A secret?"

Mina leaned in and whispered, "Nefarious used to be organic. Just like me!"

Roger jumped. "But he hates them!" He exclaimed.

"Shh! I know, I was shocked, too! I seriously thought I was the only person to have ever lost their entire body like this. I'm assuming he felt the same way when he decided to hire me."

The friendly robot rubbed his pincers together. "Maybe that's why he's so fond of you?" He suggested.

Mina's face burned as she choked out laughter, "He's not 'fond' of me." She dismissed, folding her arms and leaning up against the wall. "The only things that he's fond of are yelling at everyone for no reason and throwing temper tantrums. He's like a child."

Roger moved to stand next to Mina. "Yet you still respect him as your boss, right?" He asked.

"Well yeah," She hesitated, "I guess. But that's only because I have to." Silenced filled the air as Mina stared down at her feet. She sunk to the floor and rested her arms and chin on her knees, "Why do you think he's fond of me, anyway?"

"Oh, I've just been hearing rumors around the space station." Roger shrugged, "They're probably just rumors, though."

"Really? What-"

Nefarious' high-pitched screaming instantly blared through the station's speakers, "MINA!"

Roger and Mina jumped. She shouted back, "YES?"

Absolute silence.

She continued, "So anyway-"

"MINA!' Nefarious' screeching only got louder.

"YES! I SAID 'YES'!" Silenced followed yet again. Mina groaned, clutching her hair as she stood back up. She put her forehead on her palm as she felt intense ringing and buzzing.

Roger took note of his friend's discomfort, "Maybe he went deaf from his own screaming?" he joked.

Mina let go of her head and giggled, "Hey, that's pretty funny-"

Nefarious once again yelled into the speakers, "MINA! COME TO MY OFFICE IMMEDIATELY!"

She slapped her hand on her thigh and gripped the surface with her fingers, "I'm gonna kill him."

Roger shook his head, "Maybe don't do that."

"Too late. I already want to."

Mina said goodbye to Roger before heading back to Nefarious' office. She reluctantly knocked on the door and it opened almost immediately; Nefarious stood right in the doorway and stared down at his employee. Mina looked back up at him with a stiff form and face. He didn't say anything. Instead, he walked over to his couch and picked up a game controller. Mina stayed in the doorway. Her shoulders relaxed and she cocked her head.

"So," Nefarious began, "Are you going to come in or are you just going to stand there?"

Mina's lips formed half a smile. She slowly walked in and sat down on the opposite end of the couch while keeping her widening smirk pointed away from Nefarious. Both of them tightly held their controllers as the main menu music of the Qwark vs. Nefarious holo-game played.


	5. Act 1 Chapter 4

**Act 1, Chapter 4**

_Content warning for this chapter: Consumption of alcohol. Please drink responsibly._

* * *

Two rounds into the Captain Qwark vs. Dr. Nefarious holo-game, Mina had been victorious both times. After each of her victories, the hyper young woman would shout with glee and jump in her seat; which was quite the annoyance to Nefarious. Seeing himself getting beat up by Qwark in the game was very humiliating. The doctor would groan and roll his eyes without a word, yet proceeded to continue playing.

Nefarious' scowl only grew as he was about to press 'play' once again. Mina glanced over to him and decided to poke fun at him, "What's wrong, Doctor?" She teased, "Didn't expect me to keep beating you?" Her smile disappeared after Nefarious refused to acknowledge her comment. He looked behind Mina and pointed, "Is someone knocking?" he asked.

Mina turned her head around to look at the door. As her sight was focused elsewhere, Nefarious quickly turned the 'power' button on her Player 2 controller off- completely disconnecting Mina from the game. "I don't think so-" Mina stopped talking the second she realized the game had started again.

She button mashed as she usually did, yet nothing was happening. Meanwhile, Nefarious was laughing maniacally as he controlled himself punching Qwark nonstop. "Wait, what the?!" Mina exclaimed while trying to move in-game. Mere seconds later, Nefarious had won the round.

Nefarious shouted out, "VICTORY!"

Mina looked at her controller and realized none of the buttons were lit. "Did you…?" she inquired.

The doctor burst into laughter, "You fell for one of the oldest tricks in the book!" his voice slightly quieted down, "Moron…"

"You know, Doctor? You should have more respect for the morons of the universe," Mina huffed, "Considering you've hired one."

"Hah! You're actually admitting that you're a complete-"

"Oh, I was talking about Lawrence."

Nefarious paused in confusion, then howled even louder than before. He slapped his knee as he couldn't get himself to calm down. Mina sat back and kept her blissful eyes on him until he turned his head to look at her. Nefarious chuckled, "It's true."

The duo made eye contact for a solid second before immediately shifting their attention back to the holo-game. Mina made sure her controller actually worked before the next round began. As the round proceeded, Mina was winning again almost right away. She gazed at Nefarious in amusement as he wouldn't stop groaning in frustration. Once again, Mina had won.

"How are you always beating ME?!" He exclaimed. "How is a SQUISHY better than me?!"

Mina groaned, put her controller on the coffee table, and sat back with her arms crossed. "I'm not a squishy. I'm a robot. You know that." she said.

"Yet you cover yourself in every disgusting cell that squishies have! It's a disgrace to your kind!"

"Whoa. Why are you just _now_ lecturing me about my form? Maybe I like having smooth skin and soft hair."

"Where is your dignity?!"

"I lost that a long time ago."

Nefarious let out a loud groan as he threw his controller at the floor, making Mina jump. She began to shuffle further away while keeping her eyes on the doctor. "Robots are the greatest beings to ever exist in this universe!" Nefarious proclaimed. "Why would you want to be anything else?!"

Mina glared right at Nefarious and got up from her seat, staring down at him, "Because becoming one ruined my life. That's why." She turned away and walked out of the room.

Nefarious grimaced at her response, and scoffed in offense that his employee spoke so rudely to him. After leaving Nefarious in his room, Mina decided to walk around, hoping to clear her head. Her mind raced, _Why am I still here?_ she thought to herself, _I could leave at any point and I'd probably be perfectly okay. Finding work isn't going to be easy, though.._.

The young woman's thoughts went from working and paying off the debt, to the odd partnership she had formed with her boss. She leaned up against a wall and gently pressed her fingertips onto her forehead. Before she could think about anything else, Nefarious once again yelled into the station's speakers,

"MINA!"

She jumped. _Not again._ "What?!" Mina yelled back.

"Get back in here! I have more tasks for you!"

Mina rolled her eyes and gritted her teeth, _He wants me in, then he wants me out. Then he wants me in, then he wants me out_.

She proceeded to walk back into his room with a scowl on her face. Nefarious opened the door to allow Mina in. She entered with her shoulders slouched, "What? What is it now?"

"Must you always have an attitude?" Nefarious asked with an annoyed tone in his voice.

"Did you call me in just to give me another lecture?"

Nefarious screeched as he waved his arms around in utter frustration. Mina took a step back to make room for the rest of the temper tantrum. The doctor shouted, "You irritating little twit! Where do you get the gall to act the way you do?! You're the most incopetent employee I've ever had!"

"Alright." said Mina. "I guess I'll just leave and you'll have to find another _genius_ engineer."

Nefarious continued his loud growling tantrum as he ended up malfunctioning, freezing in place, and playing a recording of _Lance and Janice_.

"_Oh, Janice. Promise me you'll never leave me for that no good Englebert!"_

"_Oh, Lance. You know I never could!"_

Mina's eyes popped wide open at the strange sight. Ratchet used to joke to Mina about that happening with Nefarious, but she didn't think he was being serious at all. She hesitated before swinging her open palm onto her boss' head, literally smacking him back into reality.

Nefarious fumed, "How DARE you lay your squishy hands on me!"

"I'm. Not. A squishy." Mina backtalked with her teeth gritted.

"You might as well be one with your hideous skin and hair, you moron!"

"Well, robots like Courtney Gears have a lot of squishy-like features. And you still liked HER!"

Nefarious' face went blank, then he raised his brows. Mina's face was frozen still with her unblinking eyes locked onto Nefarious. She looked away to scratch her head after she felt her face starting to burn.

The doctor put his hands on his hips, "What are you implying?" He inquired.

_Oh crap._ "I'm not implying anything." Mina responded, still looking off to her side.

"You're implying something." Nefarious asserted as he walked closer.

"So what were you calling me here for?"

"Don't try to change the subject you-"

Lawrence suddenly crept into the room. "Uhm, Sir?" He asked.

Nefarious rolled his eyes, "What is it Lawrence?"

"I regret to inform you that you are _extremely_ behind on your work, Sir." Lawrence glanced at Mina then back at Nefarious, "Perhaps it has something to do with an overly persistent... distraction?" He added.

"Alright! Alright!" Nefarious put his hand on Mina's shoulder to gently push her off to the side. "Just shut up already!" He added as he swiftly walked out with Lawrence and closed the door behind him. Mina stared at the door as she tried to process what the hell just happened. She sat back down on the couch with her back slumped forward and held her chin on her hands. At that point, her entire head felt like it was on fire.

Mina completely embarrassed herself by revealing her feelings to Nefarious, before she even revealed it to herself. Then came the fun part: overthinking and overanalyzing. It wasn't just inappropriate to have romantic feelings for her boss, it was _wrong_. Because as she kept needing to remind herself, Nefarious wasn't just a boss. He was evil. He tried to take over Solana and almost killed Mina's best friends. She did her best to brush off the guilt of accepting the job offer from the doctor. But having feelings for him was a completely different story. She wouldn't stop asking herself, _Why?_

Regardless of the reasons, she knew there was no going back. Nefarious found out the truth, and there was no telling as to what that would mean for the rest of her employment. To ease her mind, Mina summoned a bottle of whiskey from the storage section of her watch. She took two big gulps before she decided to give herself more time before consuming any more. Aftering sitting in silence for a full minute, she swallowed the rest of the bottle, shuddering at the taste.

Immediately afterwards, she summoned another bottle. Several minutes passed and the second bottle was devoured. Mina's head buzzed and ached. Her hands and legs began to twitch and shake. She slowly laid down on the couch and she closed her eyes, but her mind was still very much awake. So, she took out another drink.

A half an hour later, Nefarious came back into the room and stopped dead in his tracks at the sight. "What are you still doing in here?" Nefarious asked.

"Just thinking." Mina responded, while looking up at the ceiling.

"About what?"

"Why do you care?"

"Who says I care?"

Mina smiled before she clumsily sat up and moved over to her right hand side of the couch, signifying that she was inviting Nefarious to sit with her. Another uncomfortable silence filled the room before Nefarious reluctantly decided to sit next to her, but not too close. "What is that stench?" Nefarious growled.

"It's whiskey." Mina summoned another bottle, "Want some?" Without saying anything, Nefarious decided to take the drink, as he enjoyed alcohol from time to time. "Y'know, I'm pretty excited about this whole time traveling thing." Mina continued talking as her speech started to slur. Whenever she spoke, she tilted her head back and forth slowly yet filled with energy. "I'm finally gonna get rid of this stupid robot body and my family won't be suffering anymore."

"Don't get too excited, Squishy Wannabe." Nefarious said before he swallowed the whole bottle in one gulp. "You might've done some good work around here, but you don't get to be any part of my plan to conquer the Great Clock!"

"'Great Clock'?" Mina tilted her head, "Is that what we're calling time machines now?"

They both stared at each other before they burst out laughing. "Do you have any more?" Nefarious asked while putting his empty bottle on the table. Mina pulled out two more bottles and handed one to her boss. He held his bottle up to Mina with an almost friendly smile on his face. Mina's eyes lit up as they clinked their bottles together.

"Sooo, uhhh…" Mina spoke while drinking at the same time. A few drops of whiskey trickled down her chin, "Whaddya doing with the time machine, anyway? Do I at least get to hear about it?"

Nefarious grunted, "You really want to know?"

Mina nodded.

"Come closer." Nefarious muttered. Mina leaned in as he darkly whispered in her ear, "I'm going to rewrite history. Every hero who ever triumphed will lose... Every villain who has been defeated will get a do-over..."

"Oh, cool."

The duo continued drinking more and more as the plan was discussed. Although Mina struggled to pay attention as her head buzzed and she felt the room spin. Every time either of them finished another bottle, Mina would pull out another one. Soon enough, both of them were extremely drunk.

"I have to admit, y-you're an amazing engineer," Nefarious stammered, "It's a shame your skills were wasted on the Q-Force. You could've been with me from the beginning!"

"No kidding." Her head twitched and jerked, "Can't believe I didn't think of this before. I dunno, Doctor. Sometimes I think my good guy friends don't even think about me. Clank's been missing for sooo long now… And Ratchet hasn't spoken to me in forever. But I know Ratchet very well, I know he's super close to finding Clank."

Nefarious cocked his head, "Yeah? You think so?"

Mina rested her head on the back of the couch, "Hey, remember when we all fought you?" She faltered, "Good times."

The two began to talk about that "good time" when they fought and what sort of injuries they gave to each other. "I directly shot you with my blaster and it didn't even put a crack on you!" Mina giggled, then practically inhaling more whiskey.

"You should've seen the look on your face when I turned around!" Nefarious choked out.

"I was in so much shock! I couldn't believe my 'flawless weapon' didn't do shit!"

The two broke out in laughter over the littlest things. Overall, having a good time with one another. Neither of them even thought about each other's status. They were just having fun. Both of the robots' bodies couldn't stay still for longer than a few seconds. They would either lunge their heads back and forth or flopped forward and backwards. It only got more severe as they wouldn't stop taking more drinks.

"I never understood why you never went down easily; it's because you're not even a squishy!" Nefarious laughed.

"Hah! Yeah… D-definitely a robot here." Mina responded.

Nefarious relaxed, "What do you actually look like, then?" He asked.

"Hm? Well uhh.." Mina began.

"Come on. I'm curious."

Without giving it much thought, Mina accessed the data on her watch that allows her to keep track of her prosthetics. She put the settings on her right arm to zero percent, which caused everything from her shoulder to her fingertips to peel and slowly disintegrate. Outcame a scrawny, grayish-blue metallic arm. "See?" Mina pointed out while moving around her fingers. Nefarious stared in awe as he knew for sure that she definitely wasn't lying about being a robot. At that point he finally didn't feel completely odd to be associating with her.

"And… the rest of you?" He subtly hinted.

"Well uhh.." Mina started, "I'm not sure I should."

"Why not?"

In a split second, a million thoughts went through Mina's head. Her face held a blank expression, yet her mind raced fast. Even in her wasted state, she knew she was about to reveal her true appearance to someone for the first time since obtaining the watch. Not even her closest friends had ever seen her like that. Yet she wasn't entirely opposed to the idea, she sort of liked the idea. And given the situation, she couldn't help it. Being intoxicated certainly didn't help her judgement, either. In her mind, it was almost a completely rational thing to do.

She changed the settings on her watch and turned off all prosthetics except the ones on her head. The rest of her skin, muscles, fat, and nerves, had broken down into nothing. Her blue body suit that she wore also disintegrated along with her synthetics, leaving her wearing only over sized jeans and shoes. Everything else from the neck down was completely exposed. Her robotic body was very lanky, especially compared to her chubby face. Her body consisted of the same blue and purple-ish grays as her arm. Nefarious continued to eye her from head to toe, making Mina feel both flattered and embarrassed. She refused to look in his direction as she crossed her arms over her chest, even though she had nothing to hide.

"What about your face?" Nefarious asked.

"I-I haven't even seen it since the accident." Mina stuttered.

"You're among another robot, Mina!" He said, "You have nothing to be ashamed of!"

Despite feeling very nervous, Mina decided to comply. She once again accessed her settings and turned off everything on her head. She shoved her face into her hands as she felt extremely dizzy. The skin melted into smaller and smaller particles until everything was completely gone, as well as her hair had fallen out. Mina lifted her head back up to lock eyes with a flushed Nefarious. Underneath her false skin, was a beautifully contoured metallic face. She had thin, arched eyebrows with bolts on both of them that resembled piercings, her nose was significantly smaller, and her eyes were black scleras with glowing green optics.

Mina was staring off to the side of the room, seeing double, as Nefarious didn't take his eyes off of her. She felt very embarrassed at what she just did, feeling completely exposed, also disliking not having any hair. Mina quickly grabbed her bottle and took another big gulp. "A-are you going to say something or are you just going to gawk at me?" She asked.

Nefarious still sat in complete, stoned silence, which was very unlike him. Mina knew for sure at that point that she had feelings for the mad scientist. And because Nefarious stared at her in such a way, she thought he may feel the same towards her. Having both of them being intoxicated, and caught up in the moment, she decided to be ballsy and move closer to him. "Come on, say something." She mumbled. "For a guy who's constantly yelling, you sure are quiet right now."

Still silence from him.

Mina's head tilted back and forth as her eyes looked all over Nefarious. "Byyy the way, how old are you?" she stammered, inching closer, "You barely look a day past 30-"

"What are you doing?" Nefarious raised an eyebrow.

"I'm just trying to make conversation."

"You're trying to flirt with me."

"HAH!" Mina choked out, bursting into laughter. "Okay, Mister Can I See Your Real Body and Face. _I'm_ totally the one flirting here! Oh, wait. You're not a Mister. You're a Doctor. I never thought about that. Are you an actual doctor? You went through college and all that stuff?"

Nefarious' sensors rang loud due to Mina's jabbering. He did his best to keep his composure despite being almost as drunk as Mina was. He stayed completely still as his eyes scanned up and down the fellow robot. The doctor felt uncomfortable yet pleased with Mina's straight-forwardness about her feelings. While being sober earlier, Nefarious didn't know what to do with the idea that this strange young lady was actually interested in him. And he certainly didn't know what to do with her as they were both absolutely trashed. Nefarious couldn't figure out whether he wanted to literally throw her out of the room, or let her continue talking.

Mina's whole body wouldn't stop fidgeting. "I'm just sssayin'," She stumbled, "You and I have a lot in common. Way more than I ever would've thought, ya know? I think you're kiiind of amazing."

Nefarious knew he made the right decision of letting Mina continue talking. "Pfff- Hahaha! Of course you think I'm amazing! I _am_ amazing!"

The young lady robot moved in even closer, putting her arm around Nefarious' shoulder. Her eyes fluttered as she had trouble focusing. Nefarious' smirk disappeared. Mina leaned her face in, "So, whaddya say we try something?"

Nefarious fell silent in uncertainty as he gave a slight glare. He started to tilt his head backwards yet decided not to move away. The more he looked into those captivating green orbs, the more he felt his gears turn faster.

"Don't worry, Doctor." Mina reassured, locking her hands around Nefarious' neck. "If you suck at this, we'll just use the time machine so it won't matter anymore-"

"If I SUCK?!" Nefarious exclaimed in offense, jerking back. "What makes you think I would SUCK at this?! How do I know YOU don't suck?!"

Mina's mouth formed a big grin. She tightened her arms. "You sound like you want to find out."

Nefarious fiercely stared into Mina's eyes, "If you tell anyone about this, I will kill you." Nefarious whispered intensely.

"Rrr-right back at ya," Mina smeared her speech. "No one has to know." Before the doctor had the chance to respond, Mina pressed her metal lips against his. Nefarious' wide-open, surprised eyes closed after realizing Mina wasn't going to pull away anytime soon. Both of them still understood who the other one was and how wrong it was to be doing what they were doing. But they didn't care.

Neither one of them showed signs of wanting to stop. Mina especially enjoyed herself as she could barely believe what was happening. Then again, she barely felt conscious. After a short moment, the mad scientist's hand traveled to Mina's shoulder and began to slowly bring her closer. It was at this point when things started to get too much for her; regardless of her impaired mind. Mina knew she had already gone too far several minutes ago. Every wire in her brain was yelling at her to stop.

Not wanting to go any further, she pulled away for a second before the psychopath went right back in for more. She backed up and stumbled off the couch, tripping over the coffee table. Her legs were shaking and wobbling like crazy. She clutched her forehead as she struggled to keep still standing up. "S-sorry, I just," Mina grumbled, "This feels very wrong."

Nefarious looked at his fellow robot with a rather offended look on his face. He's had a few partners before, and none of them ever stopped in the middle of a sensual moment. He felt especially exasperated because it was Mina who came onto him in the first place and persuaded him into it. "Well, fine then." Nefarious scoffed. "I guess I'll have to get back to business. You will soon have more work to get done. You better not disappoint me. '' His voice was so harsh and cold. It sent piercing feelings through Mina's body. As Nefarious left the room, he could barely keep his balance in his drunken haze. The door closed and a few seconds later, a very loud metallic THUD echoed. He had collapsed.

"Wow." Mina said aloud, "I wonder if I'll get a raise for that-" She instantaneously fell to the floor and blacked out.

* * *

Several hours later, Mina awoke in confusion as to where she was and what had happened. She was laying on the floor and her head hurt so bad she could barely lift it up. Looking around, Mina noticed a hoard of empty whiskey bottles scattered around the floor. She reached out her hand to grab one, and came to the horrifying realization that she didn't have her prosthetics on.

Mina shrieked and jerked up into a sitting position. She quickly turned her prosthetics back on and saw them slowly grow back from her watch. Her shoulders relaxed in relief, then she groaned and clutched her aching head. The room spun and Mina's sensors were ringing as loud as a fire alarm.

She could barely remember anything from the night before. But she did notice how strange it was that she woke up in Nefarious' office. The first vague memory that came back was Mina and Nefarious drinking and laughing together. _Okay, that's a little weird. But kinda nice_. Mina's prosthetics had completely regenerated as she continued trying to jog her own memory. She stumbled over to lay down on the couch.

_Come on, Mina. Think_. The next memory to pop up was when Mina willingly turned off all her false organic settings. Her mechanical stomach dropped at the thought that Nefarious had actually seen her that way. A more serious memory immediately flashed back: They kissed. A lot.

Mina's head spun and buzzed even worse than before. She let out a painful cry as she clutched her hair and laid in a fetal position. Her mind couldn't escape the images of what took place right before she passed out. The worst part was, she struggled to conclude whether or not she even regretted it. Sure, it was definitely wrong, but at the same time, she very much enjoyed it. She let go of her hair as she smiled to herself at the thought.

Then she shook her head in protest, "No." She said to herself. "This isn't right. He's my boss. He's a supervillain. He tried to take over Solana. I can't have a relationship with him!"

Just then, the door burst open, with Nefarious storming in, "AHEM!" He called out.

Mina flung from her laying position to sit up, holding her forehead.

Nefarious stomped over to the couch, glaring down at Mina, "We are getting close to conquering the time machine, and yet here you are, SLEEPING!" He scolded.

Mina grunted while refusing to make eye contact, "Uhh, I'm a little bit sick at the moment. Do I look like I'm in any condition to work right now?"

"Why you-"

"Just let me rest for a few more hours and I'll get right back to work. I won't let you down, okay?"

"Fine." He growled, "Don't keep me waiting too long, or I'm really going to hurt you."

Nefarious walked out of the room to leave Mina to sleep. Although it wasn't as if she could sleep peacefully. "What the hell was that?" She said aloud, "What's he so angry for?" The sobering reality began to hit her very hard. She knew she drank too much and knew she went too far, yet didn't feel as much remorse as she thought she should. She liked being intimate with him. She liked it a lot. And Nefarious seemed to like it, too. Although Mina didn't know if he could remember anything or not. He had to have remembered. What if he did? What if he didn't?

The overthinking anxiety attack once again sat in. It was something so bizarre, and unexpected. No matter how much Mina thought about it, she just couldn't explain her own feelings to herself. She couldn't understand how or why she and Nefarious shared romantic feelings. Especially since they were often very rude to each other. There was no telling as to what it meant for her future. Or the future of the galaxy. She could leave Nefarious and try to forget about what happened, or she could continue working alongside him, possibly having a more serious relationship with him.

"Welp, it's official. _Now_ I'm in trouble."


	6. Act 1 Chapter 5

**Act 1, Chapter 5**

Mina hurried back to her room and slammed the door with shaky hands. She ran her fingers through her hair while pacing back and forth. Plagued by confusing thoughts and feelings, she sat down on the couch to try and relax. But it was pointless. Her gloves became drenched with sweat after a few short minutes of thinking to herself.

Struggling to stay calm, Mina decided to ring up Roger to come into her room. She aggressively pushed his contact button on her communicator dozens of times in a row. One minute that felt like a half an hour went by before the friendly yet awkward robot knocked on the door. Her head popped up and she ran to let him in.

Mina greeted Roger with a visibly distressed look on her face, "Come in, quickly!" She quietly asserted before pulling on her friend's pincer to bring him in.

"Mina?" Roger blinked. "Are you okay?"

"Well, Roger." Mina cupped her hands together and gritted her teeth. "Other than losing my organic body, putting my family in debt, almost dying half a dozen times, and developing an inappropriate crush on my tyrannical maniac of a boss, I'd say my life is just _peachy_ right now."

"Uhh…"

"I'm sorry. I just..." Mina would've taken a deep breath if she could. "I'm freaking out. I did a lot of stupid things and you're the only one I can talk to about it." She took a seat and looked up at Roger, who was completely silent. He barely moved aside from his one blinking eye that was fixated on Mina.

"Oh man, where do I start?" Mina groaned. "Okay, so you and I both know that Nefarious is horrible, right?"

"Yes."

"Well, the more him and I spent time together, the more I realized how similar we are."

Roger cocked his head, "You're horrible, too?"

Mina gave a slight, uncomfortable smile then wiped it off. "I'm getting to that part." She continued, "Anyway, Nefarious and I are similar in ways that I never would have imagined. When he first hired me, I knew _something_ was bound to happen. But that was several months ago. And he was gone for days or weeks at a time. Then recently… I, I didn't expect to feel this way about him." She sat up straight with her legs crossed and face lit up. "He's got weird hobbies but it's fun to watch him be so invested in them. He has a good sense of humor and he's great at everything he does. He was actually willing to sit down with me and let us both talk about how similar our young lives were. We spent all of last night together, and I had a really good time. He had a good time too, I think."

"Why don't you date him, then?"

Mina's purple skin immediately flashed into a bright red. "What?! No, no, no!" She shook her head rapidly. "No, Roger. There's so many reasons as to why I can't do that."

"Like what?

Poor Roger was too innocent for his own good. Of course, that moment was perfect for Mina to reveal the most important detail about her connection with Nefarious, "There's... something I didn't tell you before."

"What is it, Mina?"

Mina shrugged her shoulders and stared down at the floor, "Years ago, Nefarious tried to take over Solana." Mina lethargically spoke. "He planned to turn every organic being into a robot and rule them all. My friends and I formed an alliance called the 'Q-Force' to take him down. Then we blew up his super weapon, which sent him on an asteroid, and that's how he ended up here in Polaris."

Roger's form had gotten even more stiff than it was before. His eye was wide open and if he had a jaw, it would be on the floor. The robot slid back, "You were willing to accept a job from someone who tried to take over your galaxy?" He asked. "Someone who almost killed you and your friends? And now you want to date him?"

When it was put that way, it definitely felt much worse. Mina's eyes glistened with guilt. "I didn't mean for things to go this far!" She snapped, "After my friend got captured, my other friends told me to see my family again- which I did, but it only made me want to work even harder to pay off the debt!"

"Slow down." Roger put his pincer on Mina's shoulder. He began to show agitation in his voice, "Your friend got captured?"

Mina felt like she had just been punched in the chest. She jerked up from the couch and gripped her face. "Yes!" Mina blurted with a crack in her voice. "H-he went missing not long before Nefarious approached me about the job. I don't know what I was thinking. I mean, a highly intelligent scientist wanted _me_ to work for him! Of all people… I just couldn't resist."

"Hmm… Maybe you _are_ horrible." Roger sneered.

Another imaginary punch to the chest knocked Mina down to the floor. She pressed her back up against the front of the couch as she held her face in her palms. She had to admit to herself, receiving a reasonable lecture from one of Nefarious' creations did not feel good. She knew Roger was in the right, too.

Mina lifted her head and let out a grumble, "I'm sorry, Roger. I shouldn't be taking all this out on you." She turned to fully meet Roger's gaze, "You've been nothing but nice to me. And I've been, well-"

"Selfish? Impulsive?"

"Alright, alright." Mina deadpanned. "I get it. I didn't expect things to escalate like this. I just wanted bolts. And maybe, just maybe, Nefarious would use the time machine to-" Mina stopped dead in her tracks. In a split second, a memory from the previous night had flashed back to her;

"_I'm going to rewrite history. Every hero who ever triumphed will lose... Every villain who has been defeated will get a do-over..._"

Mina felt every mechanism in her body come to a halt. Her eyes and mouth stayed wide open for a few seconds as Nefarious' words replayed in her head over and over again. Mina stood back up and cupped her hands on Roger's head. "Roger!" She exclaimed, "I just remembered! Last night, Nefarious revealed his exact plan to me; he's going to rewrite history!"

Roger flinched at Mina's sudden touch. "Didn't you already know that when you got hired?"

"Well, no." Said Mina, still holding her friend's green dome. "I figured if I purposely stayed oblivious, then, you know, I wouldn't feel quite as guilty for working for him."

Roger glared and removed Mina's hands from his head. "Did you honestly think that was going to work as an excuse?"

"At the time? Yes. Now? Not so much."

Silence and tension filled the room. Roger folded his arms and glared. Even as a creation of Nefarious, Roger still had a basic understanding of betrayal and how wrong it was. He was perfectly aware of Mina's extreme selfishness. But she had a positive quality to her that Nefarious didn't; she was friendly to Roger. Much more than anyone else on the entire space station.

Roger's eye glanced down at the floor. His arms were still crossed as the inner mechanisms of his head turned faster. He looked back up at Mina, who's expression was blank. Roger gestured his pincers to Mina, "Let's leave to go look for your friends."

Mina's face illuminated. "You and me? Seriously?"

The robot felt whatever heart he had warm up at the sight of Mina smiling again. "Yes." Roger continued, "You may have made mistakes, but it's not too late to go back. I want to help you."

"I-I don't know if I… Oh, you're so sweet." Mina held her hand to her chest. "Thank you so much. Do you have a plan?"

"Maybe whatever your next impulse is will help guide us."

Mina playfully laughed and shook her head. "Well, uhh..." She began. "There's a bunch of little ships on the other side of the station. Let's just hop in one and head out."

Roger nodded his head before going to open the door to let Mina out first, "We need to hurry." he said.

Mina stopped for a second to give Roger a slight smile, "Hey, thanks for not giving up on me."

"You're welcome." Roger responded.

"Oh, and by the way, remind me to never touch alcohol ever again."

"What? Why?"

"It allows me to have too much fun. Come on. Let's get out of here." Mina gestured towards herself as she started walking.

The duo walked through the space station as quickly yet quietly as possible. Neither of them spoke a word to each other as they scanned the hallways. Oddly enough, every area was empty and quiet. Too quiet. There were no signs of Nefarious or any other trooper.

It was too suspicious. There had to be something wrong. Mina and Roger avoided looking at each other as they both didn't want to let the other one know how nervous they were. The duo passed by an opened walk-in closet with each wall on the inside covered in various weapons and guns. It immediately caught Mina's eye and she couldn't look away, even as she kept walking.

A few more minutes of ominous silence went by before Mina and Roger made it to the landing bay. Sure enough, there were plenty of ships to choose from. Roger pointed out a ship that had two seats, yet was still barely big enough for the two of them. Roger climbed in first as Mina kept looking over her shoulder. "Hang on, Roger. I gotta go get something." She whispered as she quietly ran off.

Mina rushed back to the weapon storage where she excitedly scanned everything. Every weapon definitely came from GrummelNet, except they all seemed to be heavily upgraded. Jackpot. Mina used her watch to shrink down every weapon to store inside of it. Her watch began to flash red, signifying that the storage was full and she couldn't fit anything else inside. She groaned in disappointment while looking up at the half empty wall.

Back at the landing bay, Roger tapped his pincer on the glass window of the ship as he was awaiting his friend's return. He heard the trunk of the ship open up then a loud SLAM. Roger peeked outside to see Mina dumping in at least half a dozen weapons. She looked up, "I wasn't gonna have us leave with nothing to defend ourselves." she said. "Give me a minute, I'll go get the rest." She took off once more.

The robot raised his voice barely above a whisper, "No! Mina, come back!"

Once more, Mina snagged as many weapons as her watch could allow. Before she could exit the closet, Mina could faintly hear Nefarious' muffled yelling. She felt her blood run cold as she huddled to the back corner of the closet. In her peripheral vision, Mina saw a small box of smoke bombs on a shelf next to her. She stuffed a few into her front pockets while carefully listening for Nefarious.

Nefarious' incoherent cursing got louder. Mina's heart beat so hard, the noise almost clouded out the yelling. Her whole body shook as she peeked her head out of the closet to look around. She snuck off to her left as she believed that was the opposite of where the yelling was coming from.

Mina rushed down the hallway and turned a corner, only to be immediately met with Nefarious. She jumped and let out a startled squeak. Nefarious kept his burning, furious eyes on Mina, whose forehead was already dripping with sweat.

"So," Nefarious snarled, "You decided to try and pull a fast one on me?"

Mina slightly opened her mouth, without a single word being able to come out. Her slanted stance and trembling arms made her fear way too obvious, and she knew that. It only made her more afraid.

"And to think…" Nefarious put his arms behind his back and inched closer, "I was starting to grow fond of you."

His mocking tone didn't go unnoticed to Mina. She slowly backed away while she lowered her shoulders and arms, not breaking eye contact for even a second.

"You finally had the chance to be useful, yet you're willing to throw it all away… And for what?" Nefarious hissed. "To go back to your squishy friends who always cast you aside? I'm sure they would be _thrilled_ to know what you've been up to while your precious Clank has been missing for so long."

Mina's eyes widened and a chill ran up her back. Her face burned with fear and anger.

Nefarious slightly bent down to reach Mina's eye level, "Well? Do you have anything to say in your defense?"

The woman narrowed her eyes and still refused to speak.

"Fine…" The doctor began to fume. He started to slowly move one hand forward. "Then I think it's time for our partnership to come to an end."

'_Partnership'…?_

Without a second to lose, Mina shakenly dug into her pocket to grab a handful of smoke bombs and threw them to the floor. Black smoke erupted from the bombs, giving her the chance to run away. As quickly as Mina dashed, Nefarious was much quicker. He reached into the smoke cloud for the woman, his claws gripped onto her right arm. She looked back in complete horror as she saw nothing but his burning red eyes piercing through the smoke. Realizing her arm was in Nefarious' grip, Mina yanked away as hard as she could. She felt the doctor's hand grip tighter. One last intense pull was forced from both ends, then a loud, metallic SNAP echoed in the halls. Mina ran at top speed.

Seconds after freeing herself, Mina's sensors blared inside her head, signifying something was wrong with her robot body. She glanced at her right arm- or where her right arm should've been. She tripped over her own feet at the shocking sight and smacked down face first onto the floor. She struggled to stand back up to her feet before she continued running. Her arm socket's wires stook out and sparked while synthetic blood dripped from the wound. It all happened so fast she didn't even feel it.

Mina didn't make it far before she could hear Nefarious screaming loudly into the system's speakers, "ANNIHILATE HER! ANNIHILATE HER NOW!" A horde of troopers swarmed from all directions, chanting, "_Annihilate, annihilate, annihilate_". Within seconds, Mina was completely surrounded. She clutched her arm socket as she jerked her head from side to side, trying to find any means of immediate escape. Her sensors continued to blast in her head as loud as a siren. Mina gripped her face and growled in agony.

Nefarious once again hollered over the speakers, "You think you're in pain now, Mina?! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT PAIN IS!"

With more adrenaline pumping than ever, Mina desperately looked around to find any way out she could before the troops would inevitably move in for the kill. Although it was incredibly difficult for her to focus on anything other than her internal alarm that was still going off. Mina proceeded to harshly smack herself on the forehead and yell, "YES! I'M MISSING AN ARM! I KNOW! SHUT UP!"

After managing to turn off her system's alarm, Mina's attention went right back to the crowd of troops. Her only idea was to rush in head-on to catch them off guard. Which is exactly what she did. With her one arm, she threw various punches while still on the run. She was able to knock down a few of the robots while taking heavy hits herself. The little streams of synthetic blood on the floor also made the robots slip and fall. She continued to run as she barely saw Roger in the distance, waving his pincered hands to draw Mina's attention. "Mina!" He shouted. "Over here!"

Mina let out a short shriek as she couldn't find her voice. As soon as Mina caught up with Roger, he gripped her by her one hand and led her away from the crowd. The troops followed behind and were gaining on them very quickly. The designated escape ship was just around the corner; the duo of robots knew they just needed to keep running.

The troops began shooting simultaneously, one hitting Roger in the head. Electricity pulsed through his body, making him jittery and shaky, barely able to run anymore. Mina let out a shrill in shock and pulled at Roger's pincer to keep him going. Finally, the landing bay came into view and the duo of robots lit up in relief; but they were still surrounded.

Mina and Roger were frozen in a state of panic. They kept their sights locked onto their ship and rushed towards it quicker than ever. Except Mina noticed Roger was barely moving. His body was still in literal shock from the earlier direct attack. "C-come on!" Mina stuttered as she struggled to drag him closer to the ship. Suddenly he was directly shot again, making Mina jump back and yelp.

"Find… your... friends..." Roger's voice was faint and faded out quickly.

Mina's eyes immediately filled with tears right before she ran and climbed into the ship. She lowered the roof as she looked back at her friend in horror. The troops attacked him all at once and tore him limb from limb.

Flying a ship with only one arm- an arm that was shaking out of control, was nearly impossible. Mina activated the thrusters without putting on her seatbelt first. She screamed as the speed flung her to the back seat of the ship.

The space station's defense cannons rapidly fired at the little ship, electrocuting the whole thing. Mina yelped in pain and hysteria. All of the ship's functions were then completely offline, as well as the inside lights had shut off. The ship could no longer be controlled, and instead was stuck floating through space. Mina stayed seated as her body was trembling too much to do anything else. She glanced out the side window to see the space station slowly fading away in the distance.

Mina checked her arm socket to see that her synthetics were already attempting to grow back. Not having her metal arm- skin, muscles, and the body suit's sleeve were forming into a long blob. She rolled her eyes and quickly came up with a solution. Mina took off her right shoe and sock and carefully attempted to use her toes to access her watch. Her constant shaking and frustration only grew as her hips kept cramping due to the uncomfortable position. Finally, she was able to turn off her synthetics where her 'organic' right arm would have grown, leaving the socket and wires exposed.

Before shifting back into a normal position, Mina looked at her contacts on her watch, staring at Ratchet's name. All she could think about was what Roger said, "_Find your friends_". She knew she didn't deserve Roger's help, much less deserved his sacrifice. Mina climbed into the front seat and sat back, still neglecting to put on her seat belt. She stared at the ceiling while tears fell down her face.

The only thoughts racing through her mind were her own voice and Roger's voice telling her, "_Call Ratchet. Just call him. He will help you_. '' She curled up on the seat and buried her face into her knees, trying to block out all the overwhelming thoughts. Such an attempt was useless.

The way Nefarious said Clank's name made Mina feel sick. If she had the capability, she would have vomited at that very moment. She proceeded to contemplate how Nefarious possibly knew about Clank's disappearance, and wondered if he knew more than that. Then her mind shifted back to herself and her own actions. Nefarious had a point. What would her friends say if they knew the truth? She didn't want to find out.

Mina sat up and leaned her head back fast enough to whack it against the seat. Too much regret and guilt raced through her mind. She burnt herself out and lost the ability to think clearly or even truly feel anything.

All she could think to do about the anxiety was sleep. She laid back the seat as far as it could go and closed her eyes. This helped her relax, but her mind refused to shut off.

Every time she was about to shut down, Mina would receive a flashback about either Nefarious, Roger, or Clank. When the flashbacks happened, she jerked awake. What felt like an eternity went by before Mina had finally gotten to sleep. Her last thought before shutting down was a small sense of hope that someone, anyone, would find her and help her.

* * *

_Oof I gotta say, I am sooo sorry this took so long for me to publish xD My work schedule has been a lot busier than usual. That, and I've also been working on lots of other writing and art projects. Hopefully the next chapter won't take too long. See you then!_


	7. Act 1 Chapter 6

**Act 1 Chapter 6**

Lawrence was returning to the Nefarious space station to pick up his boss and bring them both to the Great Clock. The flight was slow, quiet, and uneventful. Certainly more pleasant than having to listen to Nefarious' high-pitched yelling. The space station finally came into view, as well as a small cluster of metal debris off to the side. Which wasn't uncommon; sometimes garbage would continue to float nearby after being let out the airlock. However, upon turning his head to the side, Lawrence noticed a heavily damaged ship drifting away from the debris.

Not concerned, Lawrence looked back in the direction where he was flying. He pulled into the ship loading bay to find a massive group of troops running around and chanting, _Annihilate, annihilate, annihilate_. Surely something had to have gone wrong, but it wasn't Lawrence's issue, so he paid little attention. He shook his head at the sight and carefully slid by all the angry robots to go look for Nefarious.

Lawrence looked around the station and couldn't find the doctor anywhere. Until he heard a repetitive, metallic clashing nearby, followed by the familiar angry screeches of Nefarious himself. Lawrence turned a corner to see his boss, flailing around a severed metallic arm, and hitting it against the walls and floor. Lawrence stood by and watched with concerned eyes. He took a few steps back to avoid getting whacked. Nefarious shrieked, "THAT LITTLE SKANK THINKS SHE CAN DOUBLE CROSS ME?! WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON HER I'LL MAKE HER REGRET THE DAY SHE WAS BORN-" As expected by Lawrence, Nefarious had froze and started playing _Lance and Janice_ again-

"_Why, Janice… Why did you leave me… WHYYY?!"_

"Oh dear…" Lawrence muttered to himself.

"_Janice… You were the only one who understood me. Now how will I go on?!_"

Lawrence quickly smacked Nefarious in the head and opened his mouth only to be interrupted by more yelling. Nefarious threw the disembodied arm to the floor then proceeded to loudly screech and thrash around his arms in frustration. "Sir," Lawrence said, "You're going to end up blowing a fuse if you don't stop that." Nefarious ignored his butler, yet slightly calmed down. He started aggressively pacing back and forth, letting out furious grunts. Lawrence stood and stared in his typical apathetic state, waiting for Nefarious to cool down. The butler hesitated before he decided to ask, "Who does that arm belong to, Sir?"

Nefarious snarled, and kicked the arm across the room. "If you MUST know," Nefarious ranted, "THAT ARM belongs to that pathetic excuse of a robot. That liar, that traitor, that SQUISHY WANNABE!" The doctor's gears and pumps were moving so fast, they looked like they could explode at any moment.

"The woman who used to work for your nemesis betrayed you?" Jested Lawrence. "Oh my, who could have ever predicted that?"

Nefarious' head started to smoke.

"Before you set yourself on fire, Sir," Lawrence began, "Perhaps we should discuss the ever growing obstacles in your plan." The doctor relaxed his shoulders, his eyes still burning with rage. "The Zoni are awaiting your return to the Clock to 'fix' Clank. Oh, and I believe it is worth noting that... the rebel, Azimuth, is on the run again, causing more trouble."

Nefarious glared at Mina's arm on the floor, then back up at his butler. "Fine." He growled. "I have something else I'd like to add on our to-do list, Lawrence. Have my new servant- er… Vorselon meet me in my office as soon as possible..."

Back in his office, Nefarious sat straight up in his chair, hands folded together. He pressed the giant red button, opening the door to allow someone in; The Terraklon assassin, Lord Vorselon. He had a devious smirk on his face.

"Do you know why you are here?" Nefarious asked in a dark tone.

"I believe I do."

* * *

Hundreds of miles away, Mina was still floating through space in her broken ship hours after her escape. Earlier, she decided to sleep in an attempt to block out all of her overwhelming thoughts. However, she didn't even consider the amount of inevitable dangers that awaited her.

In the midst of her sleep, Mina's sensors alerted her to wake up after the ship was hit. She lunged forward in her seat and rubbed her eyes. After her sight adjusted, she noticed another ship was close and fired a single missile at her. Mina struggled to sit still and fastened her seat belt as the ship rocked. She pressed the speaker button so that she could communicate with whoever was flying the other ship. Mina clenched her fist in frustration. She had completely forgotten that all functions on the ship were destroyed when it was hit by the space station's lasers.

Mina frantically waved her arm around and yelled, "HEY!" She knew whoever was flying that other ship couldn't possibly have heard her, but they certainly saw her. They must have thought she was dead. The other ship stop firing at Mina which gave her time to come up with a solution to the problem. "How about, you get me an arm," she said slowly while gesturing to her arm socket, then gestured at the weapons piled up behind her seat, "and I'll give you all my stuff? Huh? Fair deal?"

The other ship slowly moved in closer. Mina could barely see through their windshield as it was tinted. She made hand gestured that resembled using a lasso, "Give me a tow? My ship is dead." She added. The unknown person got Mina's message. They used their ship tether to grab ahold of Mina's ship and towed her to a nearby moon.

Mina couldn't help but feel a little nervous as she couldn't take her eyes off the other ship. She had no idea as to who she was about to make a deal with. She draped her arm across her curled up knees as she waited to land.

Both ships safely landed and Mina unbuckled herself to quickly step out. She stayed perfectly still as she stood to wait for the other person to exit their ship. The hatch opened, and out stepped a tall, blue skinned man wearing a hat. He had a parrot on his shoulder. Mina's eyebrows raised before she relaxed her posture.

The man held his hand to his chin as he looked up and down Mina. "You seem familiar." He said in a thick, country accent. "Ain't we met before?"

"Uhh, maybe?"

"Ah, that's right. Yer friends with that lombax and that little robot."

_Oh, great. That guy_. It was him, the smuggler whom Ratchet occasionally bought weapons from. Not exactly the kind of person Mina was happy to be getting help from.

The Smuggler continued, "As a matter of fact, I just saw him recently."

Mina's ears perked up, "Really? Where?"

"Merdegraw. He said he was lookin' for an obsidian eye to find the location of yer little robot friend."

The Smuggler's parrot joined in, "Squak! Pirates everywhere!"

"Merdegraw? Pirates? Eh, I think Ratchet's probably doing just fine. Thanks again for sending us skydiving, by the way."

"Enough about that. Now, what can I do ya for?"

Mina turned and signaled to her empty arm socket. "I wanted to know if you'd like to trade a robotic arm for all my weapons."

Both the Smuggler and his parrot squinted at the bizarre sight of the seemingly organic woman's shoulder and the wires that protruded from it. The Smuggler took a step closer to slightly kneel down to get a closer look, making Mina hesitate.

"You some kinda cyborg?" He asked.

"I guess you can say that. I don't need anything super fancy. I just need something slim. If you can get me that, I'll give you everything that's in my ship."

The Smuggler looked behind Mina to see the opened ship with all the weapons. His stoic expression lit up. His eyes went back to Mina. "Y'got all that all by yourself?" He asked. "Bet it cost you yer arm."

"It cost me an arm," Mina turned her head and looked to the ground, "and a life."

"'And a life'? Hah! Well who would'a thought? Ya got some evil in ya afterall!"

Mina's eyes quickly filled with anger and hurt. Her face heated up and her chest get tight. She failed to hide a scowl then turned away from the Smuggler.

"Alright, little lady. I think I can help ya out." The Smuggler started to walk back towards his ship. "I got some buddies who should have plenty of robotic parts. I'll call em over here."

Mina walked over to her ship and sat down on the ground next to it. She slouched while keeping her chin cupped in her hand. She glanced up to see the Smuggler whispering into his ship's communicator. His parrot kept its big eyes locked on Mina. The two had a staring match until Mina gave up and focused back on the ground. Then she decided to look up again- yep, the parrot was still staring.

The Smuggler stayed in his ship even after hanging up the call with his 'buddies'. He made sure not to give even a slight glimpse outside the window. Not until his fellow smuggler showed up. His dismembered cyborg acquaintance could easily wait a few minutes. He didn't particularly care as to what she was doing by herself over there. Instead, the Smuggler pretended to be doing some kind of work on his ship- pretending to press random buttons and mumbling gibberish to his parrot.

A larger, blocky-looking ship arrived rather quickly and landed a few yards away from the others. Mina immediately stood to her feet before noticing the Smuggler was already on his way to his friend's ship. The tinted black window rolled down a crack. "What'cha got for us, friend?" The Smuggler asked. Said friend responded by opening the two back doors of the ship. The Smuggler went to the back to see a hoard of various robot parts. Plenty of arms, legs, torsos, and optics galore. "C'mon, Lady." The Smuggler gestured towards himself.

Mina made her way to the opened trunk and scanned all over. Without thinking, she lunged in quickly, causing a pile to fall out. She tried to reach out both her arms to catch everything, completely forgetting the obvious. The pile of robotic parts clashed on the ground, and Mina jolted at the sudden noise. The Smuggler silently took a step back to avoid having his feet crushed. He gave a smile at the sight of Mina's grouchy expression. Mina wasn't looking at him, but the Smuggler still noticed her bushy eyebrows glaring and her chubby cheeks puffing up.

For every robot part that was moved, a puff of metallic and rusty stench filled the air. Without any aid, Mina dug through the pile and couldn't find anything even remotely similar to her original arm. Parts of every size, shape and color could be found, except the one she needed. Not giving it much thought, Mina took a step and pulled herself into the trunk to get deeper into the pile. She looked up where the flyer of the ship was seated. It was just an ominous silhouette. Mina's eyes and ears twitched at a disturbing thought. She peeked her head out the back to meet the Smuggler, "Hey, uhh, you're not gonna close these doors behind me, are you?" She asked.

"Ha ha. Y'got quite the sense of humor, Lady." The Smuggler chuckled. "Dunno what use a Markazian cyborg would have for me."

The parrot joined in, "Squawk! Useless!"

Mina joked with dullness in her voice, "Aw. Well now I feel kind of insulted."

She continued her search for the perfect arm. After another moment of desperate digging, she came across a slim, robotic arm with five fingers on the hand. It still had all its wires and mechanisms on the inside, too. The color was a dark crimson, which was obviously different from the rest of her robot body- not that it mattered. It was going to be covered up anyway. Mina knew she completely lucked out on this one. She clumsily slid out of the ship's trunk while hugging the arm tightly to her chest. She showed it to the Smuggler. "I think this one will do." She said. "Can you help me attach it? Please?"

The Smuggler pulled out a screwdriver and some pliers from his pants' pockets. Mina sat down on the back end of the trunk and turned so that her arm socket was perfectly in view. She handed the arm to the Smuggler and let him get to work. Luckily for the two of them, reattaching a robotic arm wasn't anything too difficult. Especially since both her socket and the new arm still had all their wires. The Smuggler intensely stared at every little area of the socket, carefully attaching each wire to the new arm. Mina watched the entire time to make sure the man knew what he was doing. She could have easily done it herself if it wasn't such a difficult reach.

A few minutes went by before the Smuggler decided he was done. He took a step back and wiped the sweat off his forehead. "Go ahead, Lady." He said. "Try it out."

Mina tried to move her new arm to no avail. She tried again- no movement. She tried once more and she felt a jolt of energy pulse from her shoulder to her finger tips. The first thing she gained control of were her fingers. They all curled and extended the way any finger should. The thumb worked perfectly. Then she tried bending the elbow, which took more effort, but she quickly managed to re-learn how to move it. As happy as she felt, she only had the energy to form a small, slightly opened smile. That was enough for the Smuggler to realize he did his job right, and he would be receiving a bunch of new weapons any second now.

"Well, it was a pleasure doin' business with a Markazian cyborg." the Smuggler began, "Now if ya don't mind, I think I'll be taking those weapons ya promised me and head out-"

"Hold on." Mina interjected. She nervously pressed the surface of her watch with her newly attached appendage. It worked. Her eyes lit up at the little light teal projection screen that emanated from the watch. She immediately accessed the settings for her artificial organic properties. "Sorry. This might be a little gross." Mina turned back on the settings for where her arm should be, and soon all the skin and muscle tissue formed back. The Smuggler and his parrot couldn't believe what they were seeing, their eyes practically bulging out of their sockets.

Mina and the Smuggler put back the rest of the fallen robot parts back into the ship, then the Smuggler's buddy took off without the two of them exchanging any more words. Mina went back to her totaled ship to help the Smuggler pack up every last weapon she had stolen from Nefarious. She was displeased to let it all go, but it was worth it for an arm. She looked at every scratch, dent, and missing pieces on the ship and couldn't help but brainstorm as to what she would do to fix it. Then she came to the important realization that she had no means of transportation. And the Smuggler never once mentioned giving her a ride or anything of the sort. He was really about to leave her there.

"Wait a minute." Mina held up her hand as the Smuggler was about to head for his front seat. Both the Smuggler and his parrot scowled down at Mina. "Maybe we can work out one more deal?"

"As much as I enjoyed helping out a nice young lady such as yerself," the Smuggler griped, "I got more important things that should be occupying my time. Besides, I figured since you killed someone for all those weapons, that you'd thrive here just fine-"

"I didn't kill anyone." Shot Mina. She paused for a moment, then continued, "I would just like to get a ride and have my ship towed somewhere so that I can fix it. I have lots of bolts, so I don't expect you to do this for free."

The Smuggler and his parrot looked each other in the eye then back at Mina. "Ya really wanna put that much trust into a lawless man like me, huh?"

"Oh, believe me, I've trusted way more dangerous men than you." _Way more... nefarious men. Ha ha_. She mentally gave herself a pat on the back for that pun. Even though thinking about him made her skin crawl. "So," Mina continued, "how does 2,000 bolts sound? For a ride and a tow?"

"Squawk! Make it 3,000!"

The Smuggler looked to his feathered companion, "You took the words right out of my mouth, friend."

"Fine. Deal." Mina reluctantly agreed.

Trusting yet another criminal was far from ideal, though it's not as if there were any other choices available. For all she knew, the Smuggler could dump her into space again at any moment. Mina climbed into the passenger seat of the Smuggler's ship, her weight causing a harsh tilt. The Smuggler watched Mina as she settled herself in. He came to the conclusion that the Markazian must have been entirely robotic- not just her arm. She was undoubtedly a heavy-looking woman on the outside, but she certainly didn't look _that_ heavy.

Mina rested her elbow on the windowsill and stared outside, not giving any reaction to the Smuggler getting in on his side. Mina could've sworn she heard him say a few words, but they didn't reach her, and she didn't care to ask him to repeat himself.

The flight was quiet and slow- slow due to the fact that they were towing another ship along the way. The uncomfortable silence only made the trip go by even slower, which fueled Mina's mind with unwanted reminders of everything that has been happening. She finally decided to ask an important question, "So where do you plan on dropping me off?"

"Krell Canyon. The Vullards got themselves a settlement there. They should have everything ya need to fix yer ship."

Mina slightly nodded her head in acknowledgement. "Oh, and uhh, thanks for helping me. I really appreciate it." She looked away mid-sentence.

"Yer very welcome, Lady."

At last, they came to a landing on top of a cliff with a view of one of the Vullard settlements the Smuggler had spoken of. The large snail-like robotic creatures could be seen walking around in the distance with all their piles of junk, looking for pieces for whatever projects they were working on. The ground was hot and dry, and the air smelled of metal, smoke, and hard work.

Before exiting the ship, Mina pulled 3,000 bolts out of her watch to give to the Smuggler. "Thank you kindly." He said.

Mina stepped out without a word and was about to head over to her own ship before the Smuggler rolled down the passenger window, "One more thing, Lady." Mina turned her head and her ears twitched. The man continued, "If ya ever wanna make any more deals or ya wanna do some work for someone, you be sure to come and find me, alright?" He had a slight smile on his face as he tilted his hat before rolling up the window and flying away. Mina watched with curious eyes as the Smuggler's ship left the scene.

After her mysterious acquaintance was gone, Mina went over to her ship to figure out where to start fixing it. Several little pieces scattered across the outside of the ship were broken or missing. And everything on the inside didn't work at all. To make matters more complicated, Mina knew that Nefarious had a bunch of other ships that looked exactly like this one. Flying it around the galaxy would be too dangerous. The woman shrugged her shoulders. "I'm gonna have to take this whole thing apart and start from scratch, aren't I?" She said aloud.

Mina turned on her watch to find an old sketchbook stored inside. She flipped through the pages to find all sorts of plans and equations she wrote for a bunch of robots, ships, and weapons she had previously designed. Then she came across a crude drawing of Ratchet and his ship that she had intended to give to him as a joke gift. She couldn't help but let out a quiet giggle at the sight of it. The conclusion was decided: Mina wanted to redesign the ship to look like her best friend's, with only a doodle and memory as references. She knew it would be far from a perfect replica, but it was the best idea she had.

Without another moment to lose, Mina got right to work. She drew half a dozen sketches and wrote down even more measurements. Once everything was written down, she scavenged through the endless piles of junk that were scattered across the plain. Every possible piece she needed could be found within just a few minutes. Some pieces less than perfect, but good enough for her current standards. Mina knew better than to settle for subpar machinery. She knew that better than anyone else. However, she was stuck in a situation where time meant everything. As soon as she finished building that ship, she were to get to planet Markazia as soon as possible. For she knew her next step in her plan was to see her aunts, as they were likely starting to worry at that point.

The Vullards were very friendly and allowed Mina to use whatever materials she wanted. Afterall, they were nowhere near aggressive enough to start a fight anyway. As she continued to work, Mina started to think about what Nefarious would say to her if he knew that she was remodelling one of his ships. She came up with the conversation in her head,

"_Mina, why the HELL are you taking apart one of my precious ships?!_"

"_Relax, Doctor. It just needs a woman's touch. Speaking of which, I know of another machine that could use a woman's touch..._"

She smiled blissfully to herself, then went blank within a split second. Her next thought was what any rational person would ask her, _Why am I still thinking about him like that?_ Nefarious not only ripped Mina's arm clean off, but was also responsible for having Roger killed. Roger was a friend and a perfectly innocent robot who let himself die just to help Mina escape. He sacrificed himself to save Mina from Nefarious, and yet there she was, still thinking fondly of the tyrant.

_No_. She thought to herself again, _I stayed there for too long. It got to my head. Yeah. That's what this is. Once I see my aunts, I'll be back to my old self_. _Hmm… It's been a while since my escape. Is Nefarious looking for me? Does he think I'm dead? I hope so. He's dead to me._

A week's worth of trials and errors went by since Mina first arrived at Krell Canyon. After the first few days, her ship was already newly built. The outer shape did, in fact, slightly resemble Ratchet's ship, the Aphelion. However, due to having it made out of various pieces of junk, it looked like just that: Junk. The rest of Mina's stay in the canyon revolved around her attempting to fly her ship and having one thing go wrong after the other. Some days the steering wheel wouldn't steer, other days the gasket would blow up or the wings wouldn't budge.

Mina had little to no sleep during the entire process. Not that she necessarily needed the sleep, but she still craved it. Her sensors and response time slowed down more and more each day. She needed to power down and take a break. Each time she gave herself time to rest, her mind was overloaded with intrusive thoughts and unpleasant reminders. When she felt overwhelmed, all she could do was sit on the ground and lay up against her ship. She would shake and tightly grip her face as the deafening memories and worries clouded her mind. It was all too much, and working on the ship was a helpful, much needed distraction. Regardless of how tired she felt, Mina kept up her work until Aphelion's ugly sister was complete.

The ship was able to fly all the way into space without any issue. At last, Mina had the capability to travel by herself. It was such a lovely, refreshing feeling. She was still plagued with responsibilities and worries for herself and everyone else, but it was the most freedom she had in such a long time. Mina turned on her watch to try and call her aunt to let her know she was coming back. It didn't ring. There was hardly a signal. She waited a few more minutes then called again. The first ring wasn't even done when Aunt Ada picked up, "Hello?! Mina?!" she exclaimed, "Is that really you?!"

"Hey, Aunt Ada." Mina responded. "I'll be coming back to your house soon-"

"COLETTE! HONEY! MINA IS FINALLY COMING BACK!"

"Oh, well it's about time." Colette's voice could barely be heard in the background. "She's been gone at that job for over eight months now."

Mina could've sworn she felt her heart jump into her throat. "I've been gone for that long?" She asked in shock.

"No, no. That can't be right." Said Ada. "I'm pretty sure you've been working at that job for over a year… I think?"

Mina muttered. "I'll be there soon. We have a lot to talk about."

"Okay, sweetie." Ada happily sighed. "I hope you tell us everything. Love you."

Mina hung up before her aunt had the chance to. She hit the back of her head against the headrest and nervously groaned. She only wished she could tell her aunts everything. Or anyone else in her life for that matter.

* * *

The Oxford-Carter household was a large, yet mostly empty home. Mina had the luxury of being allowed to stay as long as she wanted, rent free- only at the cost of repairing household machinery such as the dryer or the electric heater. Which was fine by her, except most of the machinery hadn't been properly inspected in who-knows-how-long. Before any projects could be worked on, however, it was time to have a nice, family dinner.

The kitchen was the fanciest room in the entire house. It had plenty of counters, cabinets and every possible cooking and baking utensils one could ever need. Which was perfect for Colette, who always enjoys making meals for herself and her wife, even after working as a nurse all day. The middle-aged Cazar wore her pink apron as she was preparing dinner while her wife leaned up against the other side of the island. Mina sat down at the table with a glass of iced tea in her hand, not taking even a sip.

"I know you don't need to eat," said Ada, "but you're welcome to if you want."

"Only if you'll volunteer to clean out my stomach." Mina responded.

"Ew. No thank you. I didn't have kids for that exact reason."

Colette joined in, "Sure, Ada. Sure."

"I'm sorry things didn't work out with that job of yours." Ada continued. "I know how hard you tried. Hell, I say you always try _too_ hard. I mean that in the best way, of course."

Mina curled her wrist to watch her iced tea twist. "Eh, it's alright." She shrugged. "The boss was a jerk anyway."

"Aw… Did you even try to use your charm to get on his good side?"

"Please don't say things like that."

After letting out an obnoxious laugh, Ada walked closer to where Colette was cutting vegetables to help her clean as she worked. The two exchanged a few words which were incoherent to Mina, who was still swishing her drink around in silence. Mina had been back at her aunts' place for just over an hour and did everything she could to keep conversations going, just to prevent herself from overthinking again. More silence meant more thinking.

Mina's thoughts raced faster and roared louder by the second. Before long, she lost all constraints and blurted out, "Have you ever heard of these creatures called 'the Zoni'?" Her sudden, slightly loud question made her aunts stop dead in their tracks. They stared at their niece with uncomfortable confusion on their faces.

"Zoni?" Ada asked. "What are you on about?"

"Oh, I think I know what you're talking about," said Colette. She bent down to put her casserole in the oven. "Those are little creatures that control all the energy in the universe, or something like that. I'm pretty sure they're just a myth. Why do you ask?"

Mina closed her eyes and mentally took a deep breath. "A while ago," she started, "my friend, Clank, was captured by these Zoni. We haven't seen him since, and I was wondering if you knew anything that could help-"

"Whoa, whoa." Ada interrupted with her hands held up. She walked to the other side of the table to look Mina in the eye. "Slow down." She began again, "What do you mean _a while ago_, Clank was captured?"

"What do you think I mean?" Mina broke eye contact after Ada arched her eyebrows at her. "He got captured not long before you told my parents and siblings to come here."

"What?!" Ada shrilled. Colette quickly took off her apron to rush over to her upset wife. She put her hand on Ada's shoulder, but the Markazian didn't calm down. "Clank got captured that long ago and you didn't tell us?!"

"The Zoni are real?" Colette's question went ignored.

Mina grumbled, "I would've said something, but the second I showed up here, you were like, '_we need to call your parents immediately._'"

"Oh, don't even _think_ about trying to blame me for anything." Ada's tone began to grow more aggressive. "Besides, we all know you hadn't spoken to your parents or Jamison and Eleanor since you moved to Solana _how_ many years ago? You also wrote to Colette and I while you were at your job, for cryin' out loud! You could've mentioned your friend during that time, too!"

"I don't need to tell you everything that's going on with me." Mina muttered as she slouched in her seat. "I'm not a child."

"Then why are you acting like one?"

"Okay," Colette put her hand in between the line of sight of Ada and Mina. "That's enough. Let's all sit down and discuss this like the mature, grown-up adults we are."

With an unpleasant expression and a heavy sigh, Ada took a seat at the kitchen table across from Mina and calmed herself. Colette sat between the two of them with her hands folded, waiting for the conversation to continue.

"I want to ask you a question, Mina. And I want a straight answer." Ada calmly stated. "Why didn't you tell us about your friend getting captured?"

Mina slightly raised her voice, "Because-" she stopped herself from sounding like she was even remotely shouting. "Because I was nervous as hell to see my parents and James and Norrie after so long. I knew they would be mad."

"Well you can't just form bonds with people, leave them, then act surprised when they get upset."

"... I wanted to help Ratchet look for Clank, but before his capture, I finally told both of them about, uhm, the becoming a robot thing. So he wanted me to see my family again instead."

"Did you join him in his search at any point in the past year?"

"No. I really was working."

Colette stayed perfectly still and silent in her seat, only moving her head to face whoever spoke.

Ada shook her head. "And you had to tell him about the robot thing, too, huh? That had to have been pleasant. I guess this explains why you were so insistent on staying in Polaris. You still have that debt to pay off, and your best friends are scattered across the galaxy. No wonder you're so crotchety right now."

Colette got up from her seat to give Mina a tight hug. "Mina," She softly said. "We know exactly how you're feeling right now. Right, Adalaide?"

"Yes." Ada nodded. "As you know, Colette and I used to be soldiers way back when Tachyon first ruled Polaris. Sure, we could have taken the risky move of sneaking out of the galaxy to Bogon where your parents lived, but it was too dangerous. So we stayed here for the sake of safely keeping our jobs to support each other and our marriage. Dammit, Mina. You could have at least told us what happened. You know I would've busted out my armor and joined in to help!"

Colette noted, "Honey, we've been over this. Your armor is old and falling apart, just like you."

"I am not falling apart!" Ada huffed. "My hip just does this weird _pop_ thing whenever I sit down!"

Mina gave a slight smile before returning to a numb expression.

"Anyway, as I was saying," Ada went back to her old statement, "we know how it feels to be torn apart by responsibilities and supporting loved ones. And we want you to know that you can tell us anything." Colette nodded her head in approval.

"Thanks, Aunt Ada."

"Now, about those Zoni…" Colette reiterated. "If you want to learn more about them, I suggest going to Planet Quantos. There's a race known as the Fongoids who live there. I've heard that the Fongoids aren't like us. Supposedly, they don't use technology of any kind. Only energy from the Zoni. I can't guarantee they'll want to speak with you, but Quantos may offer some clues."

"Hold on," Ada's attention went back onto Mina. "What has Ratchet told you about what _he's_ found since Clank's capture? Let me guess, you aren't on speaking terms with him anymore, either?"

Mina cringed as she felt like she had been punched in the chest. "I wouldn't say that." she answered. "We kind of had a little argument after Clank's capture. He said he'd call me as soon as possible but never did. So now I feel kind of awkward about reaching out to him."

Ada shrugged, "Might as well go to Quantos and figure out your own clues, then. Either way, I know you two are gonna pull through and see Clank again. I believe in you. Come here and gimme a hug, you brat."

The trio all got up from their seats and wrapped their arms around each other for a tight squeeze. Ada held on for an extra couple seconds after Colette had already pulled away from Mina.

"I think I should start packing now." Mina suggested. "I'll need to leave first thing in the morning. You understand, right?"

Ada opened her mouth but was immediately interrupted by Colette, "Oh, of course we do!" She reassured. "After all, you've got so much on your plate… except for my casserole."

"I'm sorry that I'm a robot." Mina said sarcastically.

She left the kitchen in a hurry and Ada hollered, "Don't forget you still have to fix our dryer!"

"I'll work on it tonight!" Mina shouted back. She sunk against the wall after she was no longer in view of the doorway. Mina ran her hands up her forehead to push her bangs out of her face as her head pounded.

Colette placed her hand on Ada's back and whispered in her ear, "I hope you got through to her alright. I do think you said all the right things."

"Thanks, honey."

"But you need to realize that Mina is 27 now. Do you really have to discipline her like that?"

"Well, _someone_ has to do it."

* * *

_And that's a wrap for act one! Wow… This is way overdue XD I apologize for that. My work schedule got hectic and then it got even more hectic. That, and as I was re-reading this chapter, it just didn't work for me. So I re-wrote the entire thing. And I told myself I'll be damned if I don't get this thing published before the new year lol. _

_Now that act one is done, I can work on smaller fics in the meantime! That, and I would love to work on drawing and illustrating certain moments from this act. Yes, that means I'll be taking a hiatus from this fic. But don't worry! If you're enjoying this story so far then I have good news for you: It's far from over!_

_I would like to once again thank my best friends, EmilyCastrov, TheLilyOfTheValley, and CSHanners (On Instagram) for supporting me in this project and everywhere else. You guys are amazing and my biggest inspirations and I can't thank you enough! _

_May 2020 bring us all happiness!_


	8. Act 2 Chapter 1

**Act 2 Chapter 1**

_Act 2 begins! After selling my soul to my sleep paralysis demons, I finally got the motivation to continue this story! I had intentions of getting off its hiatus in March, but y'all know what happened in March hahahaaa… Then a bunch of other things kept piling up one after another. It's been rough but I'm hanging on just fine. No way in hell am I abandoning this project because I've spent nearly two years developing it XD There's a few things I will explain at the end of this chapter. But for the moment, please enjoy the continuation of this story!_

* * *

Just one day after her arrival, Mina was preparing to leave her aunts' house. She got up early, before the sun rose, and before Ada or Colette were awake. The house was completely silent and cold. Floors creaked loudly from every foot step. Mina searched every room for any supplies she might need; maps of the galaxy, clothes, tools, and some of Ada's bottles of red wine.

Colette walked up behind Mina and placed her hand on her niece's shoulder. "Mina?" she softly asked. "Are you getting ready to leave already?"

Mina nodded her head without looking at Colette.

"Hmm… Okay. I understand that you have things you need to do. We just worry about you a lot."

"You don't need to." Mina was still looking through drawers for more supplies. "I have everything under control. I'll go to Quantos today, look for clues, then work from there. No big deal."

"Yes… Of course. I just hope you don't get into too much trouble." Colette inched closer to Mina's ear and whispered, "By the way, I recommend taking Ada's chardonnay instead. It's much better-"

Suddenly Ada appeared in the room while wearing a white bathrobe with matching slippers. She yawned loudly enough to gain attention from her wife and niece. Ada quickly wrapped her arm around Colette's shoulder and grinned, "How come nobody invited me to Mina's Going Away Party?" she said.

Colette shook her head. "You were too busy snoring and trying to kick me in your sleep."

"Well excuse me for being stressed and concerned."

"Mina's a grown woman. She can handle herself-"

"You're a grown woman but you need supervision sometimes, too."

Mina's eyes squeezed shut as she swiftly yet quietly closed the drawer. She shrugged her shoulders before spinning around with half a smile on her face. "I'm about ready to go now." she said.

"Are you sure?" Ada and Colette asked simultaneously.

"Yeah. I really should go-"

Ada used her fingers to count. "Do you have everything you need? Maps?"

"Yes."

"Clothes?"

"Yeeep."

"Tools? A name for your ship?"

"Yes, yes- wait, what?"

"Come on. You of all people should know that it's bad luck to fly a ship without a name. You built that thing yourself. Treat it like it's your child."

_Hmm… I tried modeling it after the Aphelion… Aphelion…_ "Athena?"

"Sure. That works." Ada approved.

The trio came in for a hug, all of them having difficulty letting go. Ada used a finger to push Mina's hair out of her face and looked into her eyes. "We're here for you." She said.

Colette nodded in agreement. "And if you need any help, don't hesitate to let us know-"

Ada interrupted, "Does this mean you'll let me get out our armor and-"

"Absolutely not." Colette gritted her teeth and whispered, "Mostly because I'd rather not get involved."

Mina let out a soft laugh before she walked out the front door and waved goodbye to her aunts. They both made sure to let Mina know that they loved her as she walked out the door and closed it behind her. She shrugged in relief and packed Athena with the rest of the supplies. Mina flicked the radio on to search for various music stations before taking off and flying away. Ada rested her head on her wife's shoulder as Colette kissed her forehead and held her closer. They waited until Mina was out of sight before they went back inside their house.

Colette cleared her throat. Ada cocked her head, "What?" She asked.

"We really should stay out of it." Colette insisted.

"Honey, we used to be soldiers. We can easily handle whatever Mina is getting herself into. The last time we stayed out of trouble, someone else got to beat Tachyon's face in. I had been wanting to do that for years!"

"So have I. But this is different. You know, Mina reminds me an awful lot of you when you were her age."

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"Both."

Ada shook her head and breathed out a laugh, "I guess having no impulse control runs in my family, huh?"

Colette sighed and sat Ada down on their living room couch. She sat straight up while Ada hunched over and rested her hand on her chin.

The Cazar folded her hands on her lap and took a deep breath, "As I said, Mina is a grown woman. Let's just wait this out and let her learn on her own. Please?"

Ada grinned, "Don't give me that face. You know I can't say 'no' to that face."

"That's why I use it as often as I can."

During her flight, Mina kept her eyes forward and her mind on Clank. She had never been to Quantos before and had little idea of what to expect. Sure, the smart thing for Mina to do would be to call Ratchet to tell him where she was and where she was going. Hell, Mina needed to know where Ratchet was and what _he_ was doing. Afterall, Clank had been missing for well over a year, Ratchet had to have found some kind of leads during that time.

The flight dragged on for several hours. Mina had to stop at various gas stations that floated around the sectors. After getting back to flying, she opened a bottle of the chardonnay that she had packed. Luckily, Athena's autopilot mode worked just fine, so Mina could drink as much as she wanted. A bottle and a half later, she powered down as Athena continued flying on the path to Quantos.

Sometime later, the monitor on Athena's dashboard had a red question mark icon flashing and beeping, which indicated unknown anomalies either inside or outside of the ship. The autopilot setting wasn't programmed to change course due to troubles on the outside. The ship was only told to go to Planet Quantos and that's what it was doing. Mina's own sensors alerted her of the noises and woke her up. She lunged forward in her seat, head bobbing side-to-side, and attempting to fixate on the monitor.

Mina looked out her windshield to see a blue and green planet and checked her maps; Planet Quantos was right in front of her. She turned her head around to see mysterious, fast moving waves in the sky. Without another thought, Mina turned the thrusters on as fast as they could go, trying her hardest to get to Quantos before the strange wave caught up. She was unable to keep her course straight, and ended up allowing the wave to hit Athena head-on.

Mina and her ship froze still in the blue wave. She couldn't move whatsoever, but her mind raced fast. She knew there was no way she was that drunk. Blue waves that freeze objects in their path? What in the galaxy was that? Suddenly the blue tone disappeared and Athena was back to moving forward once again. Mina's head buzzed and spun at the strange event. She shrugged it off and turned back on the autopilot.

At last, Mina had landed on Quantos. Everywhere she looked was full of luscious jungles that were crawling with wildlife. Yet no people were in sight. Perhaps this was a good thing. That way Mina could check out the supposed Zoni temple without causing a disturbance. Well, no more of a disturbance that these anomalies were already causing.

Many areas of the jungle had those same blue wave-like things, freezing everything in its area. Mina starred as whatever was touched by the waves would occasionally move, only to move back to whatever position they were in to begin with. Birds would fly backwards, then forward, then backwards again. Leaves that fell to the ground would float back up to their trees, only to fall back down once more.

Mina continued walking through the uncharted jungle as she heard rustling nearby. She clenched her fists, getting ready to punch whatever was on its way. The rustling got louder and Mina's grip got tighter. Appearing from behind some trees and bushes, was her old lombax friend. They both gasped loudly.

"Ratchet?!" She exclaimed, lowering her hands.

"Mina?! What are you doing here?" The lombax's ears and tail were puffed up from the sudden shock.

"What am _I_ doing here?" She left out a huff, "I'm uhh, investigating this planet. Same as you. I figured it was about time I helped search for Clank."

"Well why didn't you call me?"

"Uh, _you_ promised you'd call _me_."

"Okay, well, either way, we're both here right now."

Mina kept her eyes on Ratchet even as he looked off to the side awkwardly. He looked exactly the same as he did over a year ago when she last saw him. His eyes were as big and green as ever, except they seemed a bit bloodshot- as if he had barely been sleeping.

Ratchet shook his head and took a deep breath, "Nevermind that. Mina, you won't believe what Talwyn and I discovered; Dr. Nefarious is the one behind Clank's capture!"

The revelation pierced Mina's chest like a spear. She could've sworn she felt every mechanism in her body come to a halt. Her face turned white and her eyes went blank with shock. "What?... Nefarious has Clank?!" She exclaimed with a crack in her voice. Her hand clutched her chest as her vision and mind wandered elsewhere. _How could Nefarious possibly have had Clank this entire time?!_ Mina could hear her thoughts at a much higher volume than usual, _How did I not put the pieces together? Were there any pieces to put together? How could I have been so close yet so far? How could I- Why didn't I-_

"Mina?" Ratchet held up his hand to signal Mina to calm down. "Are you okay?"

She jerked back into reality and saw the uncomfortable concern in Ratchet's eyes. "Why... Why didn't we just listen to him when we had the chance?" Mina asked.

Ratchet sighed and shook his head. "I don't know." He responded. "I think I'll definitely regret that forever. But right now, we need to focus on finding him and bringing him home."

"Yeah…" Mina looked away from Ratchet as she looked like she was close to tears.

The lombax tilted his head. "Uhh… What's going on with you?" he asked.

"What? Nothing." Mina folded her arms. "I- uhh, just missed you a lot. That's all."

Ratchet could barely tell, but he was certain that he heard some sarcasm in Mina's voice. He knew her well for her sarcasm. He decided to poke fun, "Aww. Were you worried about me or something? I didn't know you cared."

Light and warmth returned to Mina's eyes as her smile began to stretch. "Why are you asking? Are _you_ worried about _me_ or something? That's weird."

Ratchet let out a soft giggle and shook his head.

Mina turned and gestured forward, "Anyway, we should get going. My aunts told me about the clues to the Zoni on this planet. Let's get to it."

"Clues to the Zoni? Seriously?"

"Isn't that why you came here?"

"No. I crashed Aphelion because of these weird blue waves."

"Should've upgraded her thrusters. I told you they weren't going to last much longer." Mina looked up and down Ratchet, "I'm amazed you somehow didn't get hurt."

"There you go again; worrying about me."

"If you keep being mean to me like that, I'll start being mean to you, and we both know you won't like that. C'mon, I'll fly us in my ship."

Ratchet followed Mina as she began to lead them out of the jungle. Both of them showed symptoms of stress and tiredness; bloodshot eyes, shrugged shoulders, and slow speech. It was increasingly obvious that the duo was under pressure, yet each other's company helped lift the weight of all the anxieties. They kept up conversations to distract themselves from their own stress.

"So, how've you been?" Ratchet asked. "Staying out of trouble? Making good choices?"

"Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Working good jobs, paying off that debt, and being a loveable member of society." Mina forced a grin and the look on her face made Ratchet snicker.

Mina was the first friendly face Ratchet had seen in weeks, since he told Talwyn that he wanted to search for Clank alone. Then Ratchet began to wonder to himself as to whether or not Tal would feel hurt by him meeting up with Mina. Of course, Tal knew Ratchet and Mina were just close friends, and him bumping into her on Quantos was just a coincidence.

"Hey, how's Talwyn doing?" Mina asked, "Are you two dating yet? Where is she, anyway?"

Ratchet's ears perked up as he was caught off guard. It was as if Mina had read his mind. "Oh, no. We're not officially dating yet." He answered. "It's not the best time for that, ya know? And she's back at home. I figured that I'd look for Clank alone. After learning that Nefarious is involved, I didn't want Tal to end up getting hurt."

"Hmm, but I guess you're okay with me getting hurt. Not cool- Oh hey!" Mina could see Athena in the distance, and she started to run. The woman bent over on the hood of her ship and hugged it.

Ratchet caught up and looked at the ship with disgust and confusion on his face. He could easily tell that the ship was built with basically nothing but scraps. Every bit and piece was a completely different material, everything covered in rust and caked on dirt. He expected better from his highly skilled friend.

Ratchet's 'highly skilled friend' slapped the hood of her ship, "Meet Aphelion's unofficial little sister: Athena!"

The lombax tilted his head and tried to hold in a laugh, "Thanks! She's hideous."

Mina narrowed her eyes and frowned, before letting out a giggle, "This is the best I could do with what I had."

"I think I'm gonna get tetanus just from looking at this thing." Ratchet approached the ship and brushed his hand on the hood, then leaned over to look into the windows. The inside of the ship wasn't much prettier. Then again, Ratchet had plenty of messes inside his own ship. His attention locked onto the empty bottles that were placed on the passenger side floor. He raised an eyebrow, "Have you been drinking again?"

Mina blushed as her eyes wandered elsewhere, "Yeah?"

The lombax let out a quick sigh as he shook his head. He didn't know if Mina was drunk or buzzed while she flew, and he didn't want to ask. The driver side door opened with a slight tug, as it had been left unlocked, confirming that Mina wasn't in the right headspace.

"Alright. I'll fly us." Said Ratchet as he climbed in.

"But my ship's got- eh, okay." Mina crawled into the passenger seat and used her feet to push aside the empty bottles. She then opened the glove box to pull out a slightly crumpled piece of paper and handed it to Ratchet, "This is for you, by the way." It was the crude drawing of the lombax and his own ship. "I used it as a reference for designing Athena. Figured you think it was cute."

"Well, this explains a lot." Ratchet struggled to adjust the seat settings to his liking. As much knowledge of ships he had, he never prepared himself to fly a ship made out of garbage. "Jeez, Mina." He said as he looked down the side of his seat. "Did you seriously use duct tape to keep the seat in place?"

Mina reclined her seat backwards and rubbed her own neck. "I used duct tape _and_ crazy glue. I'm not stupid."

Ratchet started up the ship as he looked around for all the buttons and switches. It didn't take long for him to figure out how to launch and take off. "I gotta say," the lombax kept his eyes out the windshield, "for a ship made outta mostly garbage, you did a really good job."

The woman let out a blissful hum, "Thanks."

Ratchet flew high enough that they were above all the trees, but low enough to see the ground. Before long, signs of civilization could be spotted; bridges and simple mechanisms to operate them, as well as stone dividers. It all looked fairly new as well.

"So, uhh, how are you siblings?" Ratchet asked, "What are their names again?"

"James and Norrie."

"Yeah, James and Norrie. How are they? And your parents?"

Mina tilted her head, "Oh, they're all doing just fine. Well, as fine as they can be. They're still mad at me about everything. Not that I blame them. Norrie's grades are higher than ever, and James went a whole semester without getting suspended. They've grown so much so fast. It seems like only yesterday they were both little kids."

Ratchet's stomach turned as Mina spoke about her family. He was still coming to terms with the fact that he had lost his own long ago. As little as he thought about it, Ratchet couldn't quite understand how Mina willingly alienated herself from her own family so easily. Then again, maybe it wasn't so easy for her. He couldn't have known. "And you've been staying with your aunts?" Ratchet asked again. "What are they like?"

"Crazy."

"Go figure."

The duo continued to make small talk as they flew above the jungle. Ratchet made sure to avoid any more anomalies as he couldn't look away from them. Mina also stared out at the strange time anomalies. She stuck by her theory that the supposed 'time machine' must have had something to do with it.

Then her mind shifted to Nefarious. The thought of him having a hold of Clank made Mina feel nauseous. How could she have missed something like that? She stayed within Nefarious' employment for so long, and yet didn't notice a single correlation to Clank's disappearance. Mina was still in disbelief that she agreed to work for the tyrant in the first place. Without warning, the sickness in Mina's stomach lifted away and was replaced by the discomfort of that butterfly feeling. Her face burned bright as she blurted out, "Hey, Ratchet? I've got a bit of an odd question for you."

"Go ahead."

"Have you ever... had a crush on someone you never thought you'd have feelings for? I mean, maybe that person is someone you _shouldn't_ have feelings for, but you do anyway? Why does that happen?"

Ratchet's eyes popped open as he furrowed his bushy eyebrows. "Uhh…" he scratched his head and felt his chest tighten a bit, "I wouldn't say I 'shouldn't' have had feelings for certain people. But, ahh… I guess you like someone because you share a lot of things in common with them, and have similar personalities- that helps to create chemistry. So even if you 'shouldn't' like someone, you end up liking them anyway for those reasons. I think?"

"You 'think'? You know more than me when it comes to dating. You've had more girlfriends than I've ever had boyfriends."

"That's because you were always too busy having flings."

"Hey, it's not my fault I could never find anyone good enough to keep after the first night. Huh… I guess old habits really do die hard, don't they?"

Before Ratchet had the chance to ask a follow up question, he looked down to notice a Fongoid woman frantically running away from little angry purple creatures. The lombax had to circle the ship around to land safely. Ratchet and Mina stepped out of Athena and headed over to the scene.

The Fongoid woman yelped in fear as the aggressive little creatures attacked her and her three children. Mina and Ratchet quickly stepped between the Fongoids and the creatures and began to fight back. Ratchet shot at them with his blaster and Mina kicked them out of the way. One jumped at Ratchet's face with intent to bite before Mina caught it in a firm grip and chucked it in the other direction. Ratchet shot it dead before it could reach the ground.

The Fongoid children huddled around their mother as she embraced them. "Oh my gosh- Thank you so much!" The woman exclaimed.

"No problem." Said Ratchet.

"What the heck are these things?" Mina asked.

"Zyphoids. They're mutated viruses, but we haven't seen them on this planet in years!"

Ratchet and Mina looked at each other before looking back at the woman and her children, who started walking past them. "We have to get back to our village. But there's still zyphoids around. Can you help us?"

One of the Fongoid children looked particularly frightened as he shook and quietly whimpered. Mina squatted down to sit on her knees and look at the little boy in the eyes. "Hey, it's okay." She said. "My buddy and I have fought all sorts of monsters and such. These weird toothy mushrooms are no match for us. We'll get you all home safely." The little boy smiled at Mina's words and kept his eyes on her as she stood back up to her feet.

Ratchet and Mina continued to lead the Fongoids through the jungle, fighting off any zyphoids and eventually making their way to a large stone door. The door opened, revealing the Fongoid Chief. The Fongoid woman called out, "There's Zyphoids everywhere! There must be something wrong with the Timekeeper!"

The Chief shushed the woman before letting everyone inside. He introduced himself as Cheif Alpheus and guided the group through the village. The Fongoid villagers all watched Ratchet and Mina as if they had never seen a non-Fongoid before. Their stares grew quite uncomfortable as Chief Alpheus began to vaguely explain how the Zyphoids were attracted to quantum energy. Mina hardly paid attention as she was too busy scanning the village for any sign or information about a time machine. She did remember how the Fongoid woman said "Timekeeper" and wondered if that's what she meant.

"Here, we have a Zoni vessel in this temple, nyeh!" The Chief's words finally captured Mina's full attention. He continued, "I can allow you in if you promise to keep its secrets."

The group entered the temple and Ratchet started to head in deeper. Mina gently touched his shoulder, "Hey, Ratchet?" She asked. "Is it okay if I go in instead?"

"Huh? Sure, I guess." Ratchet stayed standing still on the switch to open the door to let Mina in.

The large stone doors closed behind Mina. For a temple, it was oddly empty. Only a few fire beams and traps could be seen. All the walls and floors were overgrown with vegetation, and there was no sign of any cave paintings or writing that Mina hoped for.

"Okay, gotta find something about a time machine." Mina said to herself as she navigated the temple. "That lady said something was wrong with the 'time keeper'. Was she talking about the time machine? I guess Nefarious is already screwing around with that thing. Nice going, genius." She squeaked and jumped when fire puffed from the wall. Stepping away, she continued through the temple.

Mina's communicator on her watch began to beep as Ratchet was calling her. She answered the call and Ratchet spoke, "Are you doing alright in there?"

"Oh, yeah. I'm fine. Just trying to avoid getting set on fire so that I don't lose my body and- oh wait."

Ratchet huffed out a short laugh, "Be careful, and let me know when you find the vessel."

Mina's gloved hand grazed the surface of the wall as she headed deeper into the temple. She searched high and low for any further information on the Zoni or the 'time keeper'. She avoided the traps just fine, as they weren't very well put together anyway.

Mina began to grumble as loud thoughts plagued her mind, _How can a Zoni temple have nothing to tell about them? The Fongoids must really want to keep it a secret. Which makes sense. Why am I even bothering with looking for clues, anyway? It's not like I can tell Ratchet, because then he'll wonder how I know about it. _She flipped her hair out of her face and wiped sweat from her forehead. Mina leaped from a giant, slowly turning cog to make it to another ledge.

The woman used a flashlight on her watch to go through a hallway that was completely darkened. She began to speak out loud to herself, "How did Nefarious find out about all this? Do the Fongoids know that Nefarious used the Zoni to capture Clank? Maybe the Zoni are also evil. Wait, am I evil? I'm pretty sure working for a villain makes you evil. Kissing a villain probably makes you evil, too-" Mina harshly brushed her fingers through her bangs and blurted out, "Ugh, stop thinking about that already!"

The end of the temple came into sight. A long, lit path led to a giant statue of a wide-eyed creature wearing a hood, the Zoni vessel sat right beneath it. Mina bent down to grab the vessel and looked back up at the statue, "Hmm… Well, don't you look important?" She turned her head to see two Zoni flying around the room, smiling at the adorable sight. Mina reached out and was able to grab them both and place them into the vessel. "Hey, can either of you tell me where Clank is? No? Didn't think so."

Mina called into her communicator, "I've got the vessel, Ratchet. And I caught two Zoni!"

Loud rumbling noises could be heard on the other side of the call as Ratchet stammered, "Good job, Mina. Uhh, you better get back out here." Loud, distant screams came through the communicator before it immediately cut off. Mina ran through the temple and out the entrance as fast as she could.

Outside of the temple, a large ship hovered over the village as Fongoids scattered in fear. The Chief exclaimed that it was Lord Vorselon's ship, and that everyone must head into the temple for safety. Mina quickly shoved the Zoni vessel into Ratchet's arms while staring up at the ship.

Ratchet took out his blaster, "Ready to kick some more ass?"

Mina stretched her arms and grinned, "Do you know who you're talking to? Of _course_ I'm ready-"

Suddenly a large robotic creature appeared out of thin air, "AZIMUTH!" It was none other than Vorselon himself.

Mina shrieked and jumped backwards as all her hair stood up.

Vorselon circled around Ratchet, "I believe Dr. Nefarious was clear as to the repercussions of leaving your _hovel_. The clock is ours."

Ratchet tilted his head, "Wait, who?"

Mina stood between the two of them and looked the cyborg in the eye, "Excuse me, but Nefarious, and anyone who associates with him, has no business here. So get lost, goldfish."

Vorselon glared at Mina, then looked down at her left wrist and noticed her watch. "Ah, if it isn't Minerva Oxford; the woman I was hoping to find." He said.

Mina cocked her head in discomfort and confusion, "Sorry, but you're definitely not my type."

Ratchet buried his face in his palm in embarrassment. Suddenly, Vorselon caught Mina in a large, electric bubble that carried her back to the ship. Mina could do nothing except stare down at the ground with utter confusion and shock. She could barely see Ratchet fighting off an army of robots that looked identical to the ones that Mina worked alongside months ago. She continued to watch the battle until her bubble made its way inside the ship.

Mina was transported into a small cell in the detention wing, where all she could do was sit against the wall and once again, be alone with her thoughts. Mina spoke aloud, "Oh, nice. Looks like Nefarious somehow found another robot who used to be organic. You sure that's not why you hired me? You sure you weren't just lonely being the only organic-turned-robot in existence?" She began to mock Nefarious' voice, "'No, I just hired you because you're a good engineer'. Uh-huh, sure, Doctor. Sure."

Troopers walked past Mina's cell, giving her dirty looks, which she responded to with dirty looks of her own. Seeing the robots she not only worked with, but robots similar in design to her old friend, Roger, made Mina's heart race faster. Mina's watch lit up; Ratchet was calling. She picked up and turned the volume down as low as possible.

"Mina? Can you hear me?" Ratchet asked.

"Yeah, I can hear you."

"Are you doing okay? Why did Vorselon know your name?"

"I'm fine. And uhh, beats me. Anyway, if you're on your way to come get me, you better hurry. I've learned that I really don't like being kept in a tiny cell."

"Don't worry. I'll get you and the fongoids out. Can you turn on your nav unit?"

"I never installed a nav unit- wait, fongoids were captured, too?"

Ratchet groaned, "Dammit, Mina-"

Before Ratchet could say anything else, troopers walked closely past Mina's cell. She turned off the call and hid her hand behind her back. She decided to get up to try and coax the troopers over to her. "Hey! Hey you! Roger's brothers or whatever!" She shouted. The troopers ignored her. "I just wanna talk to Vorselon. Take me to him! Please?" The other bots shook their large heads and lowered the containment field of the cell. Mina stepped out slowly and walked up to the troopers. As tempting as it was, Mina knew she couldn't fight her way out this time. One trooper whacked her in the back, making her grunt and almost fall forward. "Move it, Squishy Wannabe." said the trooper. Mina glared in response.

The troopers lead Mina to the other side of the ship, where Vorselon was waiting. As the troopers and Mina walked through the halls, Mina kept her eyes off the robots and stared down at her feet. She could feel all of them watching her every move. _I wonder what this guy wants… Hmm… What did Nefarious do with my old arm? I'm not sure I wanna know._

The group made their way to a wide-open chamber of the ship, with Lord Vorselon standing at the very end. He had his back turned until he knew for sure that his troops had brought back his prisoner. Vorselon slightly turned his head to look at Mina, who was too busy scanning his height.

"Minerva Oxford…" Vorselon spoke, "The Markazian cyborg who foolishly deceived the highly exalted Dr. Nefarious. You wished to speak with me?"

Mina held up her hand, "I'm sorry, the 'highly exalted'?" She cringed, "Is that what Nefarious makes you call him?"

Vorselon clapped one pincer hard and loud enough to make Mina literally bite down on her tongue. "SILENCE, you irritating little creature!" Vorselon squinted his eye and quietly grumbled with anger at Mina's attitude, which Nefarious had warned him of.

"The Doctor has informed me of your betrayals, and has very special plans for you."

Mina stared silently at Lord Vorselon's massive pincers, then back up at his eye.

Vorselon continued with a pleased expression at Mina's discomfort, "Yes... He plans to have you locked up inside his torture chamber, where you will endure hours of unimaginable agony!"

Mina's eyes and ears twitched as she thickly swallowed. She twiddled her fingers as Vorselon walked closer, "Soon, you will learn what happens when members of Nefarious' employment double-cross him! Unless…. _Pause for effect_," Vorselon clamped his pincer once more, "You tell me the location of Alister Azimuth. Only then will you be granted your freedom, and perhaps, bolts. Nefarious told me you have a _thing_ for bolts… How does 50,000 sound? How about even more?"

Mina's throat went dry at Vorselon's words. She stuttered once before snapping back to her normal speech, "Seriously? Nefarious is trying to make a deal with me? Listen, I don't know who Alister Azimuth is. Why does Nefarious assume that I do? Even if I did, I wouldn't agree to tell you in exchange for bolts. That would mean I'd basically be working for Nefarious again. And in case he didn't get the message, I really don't want to be his employee anymore." Her voice started to crack, "He really had the nerve to hire me while holding Clank captive?! He knew I was a friend of Clank!"

Vorselon became increasingly angered by Mina's tone, glaring and gritting his jagged teeth at her, "He's a villain! What else did you expect?! And yet you're 'friends' with the heroes? Perhaps you're deeply confused. How pitiful."

"No, I'm not!"

Vorselon bent over to meet Mina's eye level, "If it weren't for Nefarious demanding to kill you himself, I would throw you out the airlock and watch your disgusting body decompress and explode! And I would enjoy every second of it!" His yelling made Mina lean her head back as her sensors rang loudly. Vorselon walked away and continued talking without looking back, "Nefarious told me he wishes he took your pathetic life when he had the chance… It's a shame your stubbornness will cost you your life!"

Mina squinted her eyes as she pondered to herself. She didn't think another second before letting more words slip from her mouth, "Out of curiosity, what else did he tell you?"

Vorselon growled before going back to his composure, "He told me you allowed an innocent trooper to die a gruesome death just so that you could escape by yourself with stolen weapons. Such a vile act of evil if I do say so myself. It's a shame you no longer wanted to be a part of the doctor's forces. You would have accomplished so many great things. Ah, but instead… you will be the next one to be ripped apart and melted down into scraps!"

Mina's hands balled into fists and shook against her sides. She glared directly at Vorselon while quietly growling. She could feel her eyes starting to burn and twitch.

Vorselon gestured to the surrounding troopers, "Take that _thing_ back to her cell. Dr. Nefarious will be very pleased with her arrival…"

Mina growled and spoke inside her head, _Yes, please. Take me away from him before I throw a punch at his stupid floating head._

The troopers harshly led Mina out of the chamber and proceeded to walk her back to her cell. She spoke aloud in her signature sarcastic voice, "Aren't you just what the doctor needed? A big, dramatic jerk who gets his points across by yelling. And yet Nefarious thought _I _had an attitude problem. I bet you and him are such great friends. I bet he thinks you're perfect for him-" a trooper whacked Mina on her back once again, forcing her to stop talking.

Mina was placed back in her cell and left alone with her anger. She felt every muscle in her face twitch and cramp as she desperately tried to process all of her thoughts. Suddenly, her watch began to light up. Thinking Ratchet was calling, Mina excitedly checked her notifications. Instead, it was the reminder that her monthly payment towards her debt was due. Tears began to stream down Mina's face as she stared at her watch. She put her hand over her mouth and gripped tightly as she began to sob.

Mina sat on the floor before completely breaking down. Her hand moved from her mouth to her forehead, where she dug her fingernails into her skin even tighter. Each cry she let out was followed by a groan that was deep yet quiet enough so that no nosy trooper could've possibly heard her. "Mina?" Instead, someone else had heard her cries.

Mina aggressively rubbed the tears off her face and brushed her fingers through her short hair. She peaked out her cell's containment field, "Ratchet?" she whispered.

Sure enough, Ratchet found his way into the detention wing. He was startled by Mina's reddened face, "Whoa, are you okay? Were you hurt?" he asked.

She shook her head, "No, I'm fine. I'll be even better after you get me out of here."

Ratchet used his kinetic tether on his wrench to break the containment field on Mina's cell. She lunged forward with her arms held out then immediately pulled back before touching Ratchet. "Alright, let's go get the Fongoids." he said.

"Oh, yeah, right. They're here, too."

Ratchet shook his head and sighed, "Before we go, let me help you install a nav unit." Within just a minute, Ratchet updated Mina's watch and made sure to turn her location on to test it. He checked his own nav unit and nodded in accomplishment, "See? Easy."

Ratchet started leading Mina to a different area of the detention wing, hoping to find the other prisoners. "So, what's up with this Vorselon guy? Do you know what he wants?" Ratchet asked.

"Apparently he wants to know the location of 'Alister Azimuth'"

"Who is that?"

"I don't know. Some rebel, I guess?"

"Well, if he's an enemy to Nefarious, then he might be a friend to us. Also, the fact that Vorselon knows your name is pretty sketchy. I think that's something worth looking into-"

"No!" Mina jolted, breaking eye contact after seeing how uncomfortable Ratchet was. "I mean, that's not important right now. Let's just rescue the Fongoids and ask them about this 'Alister' person."

Ratchet gave Mina a confused expression even after she had already looked away. He shrugged it off and kept going.

After carefully treading through several security traps, the duo found where the Fongoids were being kept. Chief Alpheus exclaimed, "It's the lombax and the Markazian, nyeh! We're saved!" The little boy Fongoid was especially happy to see Mina, jumping up and down with a wide smile. Ratchet pulled out the plug to the containment field and released everyone from their cells. He looked up and down at a blocked door to see if he could find a way to open it.

"Okay, now it's my turn." Mina walked in the opposite direction of the door and put one foot back, "I've always wanted to try this-"

"Mina, NO!" Ratchet shouted out.

Ignoring her friend, Mina ran full speed at the door, head butting it and breaking it down without a sweat.

Immediately after the door crumbled, an alarm blared through the ship with red lights flashing brightly. "Whew! I needed that." Mina said.

Ratchet knew he had no time to scold her. He pulled out his blaster and motioned for the group to follow behind him. The Fongoids huddled together and stayed behind Ratchet and Mina.

The lombax fired multiple shots at all sides, defending the group from enemy fire. "Be careful, Mina." He said, "I want you to protect the Fongoids and let me handle this."

"Oh come on, Ratchet." She rolled her eyes as she ran to keep up with him. "You know I'm no stranger to fighting. Hell, you and I have fought before."

"Have we? I don't recall that ever happening."

"Al's New Year's Eve party a few years ago? Close to midnight?"

Ratchet nodded his head while continuing to shoot Nefarious' troopers. "Okay, yeah. I definitely remember that. You wrestled me for a bottle of tequila and then tried to throw me out a window."

"Sorry about that, by the way. I hope you realize I'd never hurt you on purpose."

Ratchet had to hold back a grin, "Y'know, they say if you do something while drunk, that means you wanted to do it sober."

"I don't remember ever wanting to fall asleep inside Al's washing machine, but alright."

The Fongoids could only stare awkwardly at the duo while they kept talking while also fighting off so many deadly robots. Regardless of the strange behavior of these individuals, the Fongoids knew they had to keep their heads up and run for their lives.

The group continued to rush through the ship to try and find a way to escape. Multiple troopers, big and small, kept antagonizing everyone in the group. Mina used herself as a shield for the fire power, as her skin would heal back anyway. The group was about to turn a corridor before Mina decided to stop quickly enough to show her middle finger to a nearby security camera.

Finally, a dock was found with an escape ship just big enough for Mina and the Fongoids. Everyone hopped on board while Mina was the last one to go in. Ratchet put his hand on her shoulder, "I'll take care of Vorselon. You get the Fongoids to safety."

"Anything for you, best bud." Mina ran into the escape ship and fastened her seatbelt. All the Fongoids patiently sat on the floor of the ship while breathing heavily. Mina started up the ship and waited for Ratchet to open up the airlock, allowing her to fly out.

The Fongoids mostly kept to themselves, whispering amongst each other. Mina couldn't tell what they were saying; all she heard was the occasional verbal tic. Many minutes passed as they all flew through the sector on their way back to Quantos. The indistinct chatter was uncomfortable enough to make Mina bite her lip and grip the wheel tighter. She finally spoke up, "Okay, you don't have to talk to me right now." She said. "But Ratchet and I need to know about Azimuth so that we can figure out why Vorselon and Nefarious want him. We will make them pay for what they did to you-" Mina's watch lit up to show that Ratchet was calling her.

Mina answered the call to hear Ratchet panting on the other side, "Hey, are you all still in one piece?"

"Are you?" Mina asked.

"Barely. I beat Vorselon but he'll be back for more later. By the way, I want to talk to you about what you did."

"You mean about how I helped us escape the detention wing? You're welcome."

A slight growl could barely be heard through the call. "Mina, I'm serious. You could've gotten us all killed."

"I got us out, didn't I?"

"Yeah and alerted the entire ship about it. You can't just hijack every situation you're in. You have a terrible habit of doing whatever you want without thinking about it and causing chaos everywhere you go."

"Wow. Since when do you give lectures?"

Ratchet's voice grew increasingly angry, "Ever since you've been a troublemaker. Which is almost as long as I've known you."

_Oh, as if you're not a troublemaker? _"Okay, okay. I'm sorry."

"Don't tell _me_ you're sorry. Tell the Fongoids you're sorry."

Mina turned her head to the Fongoids, who all quickly looked away as if they had been staring the whole time. "Sorry I set off the ship's alarm and almost got us all vaporized by Nefarious' troops." Said Mina.

Chief Alpheus nodded, "Apology accepted, nyeh! All is forgiven. At least we're all safe now. And we can tell you about Azimuth-"

The little boy Fongoid jumped up excitedly, "Ooh! I wanna tell her!"

Mina smiled at the kid and pointed her left wrist towards him, so Ratchet could hear better. The little boy spoke up, "Alister Azimuth is a rebel who lives on the planet, Torren IV! He lives all by himself!"

Ratchet responded, "Hmm… Torren IV… Got it. Okay, I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Hey, Ratchet?" Asked Mina. "Thanks for keeping me grounded."

"Someone has to do it. I'll contact you again once I land on Torren IV. Just hang tight until I get there." Ratchet hung up and Mina continued her flight back to Quantos.

After landing the ship, Chief Alpheus stepped out first then the rest of the Fongoids went after him. The little boy thanked Mina the most out of all of them. She made sure that they all made it back to their village safely. Once they did, Mina walked back through the jungle to find her own ship.

Mina found her beloved Athena and crawled inside to recline the seat back and lay down. She held her arms above her head and closed her eyes. Before she could fully relax, her watch lit up, reminding her about the debt again. Mina rolled her eyes and groaned before putting her seat back up. She sat still for a few seconds before she made up her mind. Starting up Athena, Mina flew off the planet.

In the middle of the sector, Mina came across the ship being flown by the familiar face she was looking for.

"Well, now. If it ain't the Markazian cyborg. What brings to this here sector?"

Mina smirked, "Oh, no reason. I'm just out of bolts and was looking for anyone who might wanna help. Do you have any work for me?"

The Smuggler mirrored Mina's expression, "As a matter of fact, I do."

* * *

_Okay so I feel the need to explain this really quickly because I'm afraid of giving the wrong implications: My character does NOT replace Qwark in the overall story of A Crack in Time XD She only replaced him for this one particular sequence! Our favorite captain will have his time to shine when he's ready. Also, I do not plan to make any further chapters this long because holy crap I thought this was going to kill me, oof… Anyway, I hope you're as pumped for this act as I am! I promise the rest of the chapters won't take a hundred years for me to upload. I'm just trying to get back into the writing groove. I'm also interested in remastering the first act because, well, my writing has improved a lot since then and the first act's writing kinda makes me cringe XD I suppose that's normal for several fic writers, though. It's too soon for a remaster, though. For now I'll just keep updating this and other projects of mine. Thanks for reading!_


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